
J. GREGOBY MANTLE D.D. 



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CQESRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



GUARDING THE OUTPOSTS 




J. Gregory Mantle, D.D. 



GUARDING THE 
OUTPOSTS 

A BOOK FOR YOUNG MEN 



BY 

J. GREGORY MANTLE, D.D. 




New York Chicago 

Fleming H. Revell Company 

London and Edinburgh 



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*\ 



A* . 3 



Copyright, 1917-1919, by 
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 



Printed in United States of America 



New York: 158 Fifth Avenue 
Chicago: 17 N. Wabash Ave. 
London: 21 Paternoster Square 
Edinburgh: 75 Princes Street 



©CI.A512831 

MAR 28 1919 



A FOREWORD 

THESE chapters were all written for young 
men. They appeared a year ago in a volume 
called "Taps," which is now out of print. 
There were other chapters in that book which made 
it specially suitable for those who had been called 
to and were serving under the colours. Owing to 
the cessation of the war these chapters have now 
been omitted. 

The reviewers treated these messages, in their 
original form, so generously that the author has no 
hesitation whatever in sending them forth under a 
modified title, feeling confident that their errand of 
usefulness was scarcely begun. 

With a father's solicitude, I commend these chap- 
ters, full of wholesome instruction, of warning, and, 
I trust, of winsomeness, to the young man into whose 
hands they come. 

Your physical energies are fresh and vigorous; 
your perceptive faculties are clear; your receptive 
faculties are strong. You can easily apprehend the 
truth and retain it. Plastic as the clay, you are sensi- 
tively susceptible to impressions. Your affections, 
tendril-like, are ready to fasten on worthy and noble 
objects. No legion of regrets oppresses and re- 
proaches you. The chains of habit are not so strong 
that they cannot quickly be dissevered. Life, with 
all its glorious possibilities, lies before you. To 
enable you to translate those possibilities into actu- 
alities these pages were written. 

5 



6 A FOREWORD 

Plutarch tells us that it was customary at the 
Spartan festivals to have three choirs corresponding 
to the three ages of man. The old men, with their 
grey locks and tremulous limbs, began by chanting : 
"Once in battle bold we shone.' ' Then the men of 
middle age answered: "Try us, our vigour is not 
gone/' Then the youths, full of fire and energy, 
concluded by singing: "The palm remains for us 
alone.' ' 

As it was then, so it is still. The palm of victory 
over self and sin, over the world, the flesh and the 
devil remains within your reach. It is for you to 
win the palm, and then wear the victor's crown. 

J. Gk M. 

Lo'uisville, Ky. 





CONTENTS 




I. 


Playing the Fool .... 


9 


II. 


The Story of the Sirens . 


18 


III. 


The Beast-Life . . 


. 25 


IV. 


The Ruin of a Hero 


. 32 


V. 


The Sword of Damocles 


. 40 


VI. 


Three of King David's Generals 


. 47 


VII. 


The Fight for Mansoul 


. 54 


VIII. 


Guarding the Outposts 


. 62 


IX. 


"Pure and Clean, Through ani 


D 




THROUGH'' ..... 


. 69 


X. 


The Soldier's Drill Book No. 1 


. 76 


XI. 


The Soldier's Drill Book No. 2 


. 83 


XII. 


The Soldier's Drill Book No. 3 


. 91 


XIII. 


The Soldier's Drill Book No. 4 


. 99 


XIV. 


Gordon's White Handkerchief . 


. 106 


XV. 


The Comradeship of Greatheart 


. 112 


XVI. 


Saints in Nero's Household 


. 120 



PLAYING THE FOOL 

WHEN a fool is off his guard he frequently 
lets the cat out of the bag and reveals 
himself in his true character without in- 
tending it. King Saul had slept so heavily that when 
David and Abishai made their way to the trench 
where he slept, and took from his bolster his spear, 
which was stuck in the ground, and a cruse of water 
that was also lying there, they awoke neither the 
King nor any of his body-guard who were sleeping 
near him, and who were responsible for his safety. 
Putting the valley between them, David stood on the 
top of a hill afar off "a great space being between 
them : And David cried to the people, and to Abner 
the son of Ner, saying, 'Answerest thou not, Abner?' 
Then Abner answered and said, 'Who art thou that 
criest to the King?' David replied: 'You are a 
valiant man, why then do you not look after the 
safety of your King? Some one has been in the 
trench, and it would have been easy enough to have 
taken the King's life. You are worthy to die be- 
cause you have kept so poor a guard upon the life of 
the Lord's anointed. Look where his spear is, and 
the cruse of water that was at his bolster ! ' " 

David no doubt exhibited them both from the top 
of the hill to the ashamed Abner, to whom no thanks 
were due that the King was not lying dead in the 
trench, for Abishai had proposed this to David, say- 
ing: "God hath delivered thine enemy into thine 

9 



10 GUARDING THE OUTPOSTS 

hand this day: now therefore let me smite him, I 
pray thee, with the spear even to the earth at once, 
and I will not smite him a second time." In other 
words, Abishai said, "He will not need a second 
stroke. ' ' 

But David with beautiful self-restraint, hunted 
though he was by Saul "like a partridge on the 
mountains," refused, and said: "Who can stretch 
forth his hand against the Lord's anointed to be 
guiltless? ... As the Lord liveth, the Lord shall 
smite him ; or his day shall come to die ; or he shall 
descend into battle, and perish." Let us leave him 
alone. God will deal with him. 

Saul was awakened by the voice of David crying 
out from the top of the opposite mountain. His 
senses were keen and acute, everything was clear to 
him and before he knew it he had confessed to David 
that he had "played the fool." The whole incident 
is recorded in the first Book of Samuel, chapter 
twenty-six. 

The Book of Proverbs gives us a whole picture 
gallery of men who play the fool. The writers of the 
Divine Library, which we call the Bible, were plain- 
spoken men, and instead of speaking of a spade as 
"an instrument used for the purposes of agricul- 
ture," they called a spade a spade. 

To play the fool in Scripture is never to act as an 
idiot or as a person mentally deficient. The word 
"fool" has various shades of meaning in the Hebrew, 
but the word most frequently translated "fool" 
means perverse, obstinate, incorrigible. Here is an 
example: "Though thou shouldst bray a fool in a 
mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet will not his 
foolishness depart from him" (ch. 27:22). To 
"bray" with a pestle is to pound, or to beat small. 
The process of separating the husks from the corn by 



PLAYING THE FOOL 11 

the use of pestle and mortar is much more delicate 
and careful than threshing in the usual clumsy way 
resorted to in the East. Hence the idea is expressed 
that the most elaborate pains are wasted on the in- 
fatuated, incorrigible f ooL ' ' His foolishness will not 
depart from him"; it cannot be pounded or beaten 
out of him. 

It is interesting to know that in Turkey this 
process of braying or pounding was actually re- 
sorted to. Great criminals were beaten to death in 
the huge mortars of iron in which the Turks usually 
pounded rice. 

Think, then, of that self-conceited, self-confident 
and obstinate temper which eschews counsel; which 
persists in having its own way; which is so over- 
sanguine with fond expectations and baseless hopes, 
that it is sure everything will turn out according to 
its wish. These conceited, unteachable fools are the 
despair of the instructors in the camps, as they are 
of the professors in the schools of learning. 

When I saw the words "Past Redemption Point" 
on a board of warning by the side of the Niagara 
River, I remembered a tragedy of years ago. Two 
young men went on the river one afternoon for a 
pleasure trip in a small row-boat. They had been 
drinking freely before they started, and they took a 
further supply of drink on board. 

Quietly and swiftly they were carried towards 
the Falls. Presently a loud voice was heard from 
the bank : " Hi there ! Do you know where you are 
going? You are only half a mile from the Falls!" 
The self-confident and muddled fools only met the 
warning with profane laughter. Another warning, 
a little later, was treated with equal derision. 

All at once they awoke to the fact that their 
boat was being carried along with ever-quickening 



12 GUARDING THE OUTPOSTS 

speed. They were alarmed, and began vigorously 
to ply their oars. But it was too late. They had 
reached Past Redemption Point. They were. being 
drawn irresistibly over the Falls. Their cries for 
help were drowned in the thunder of the waters, and 
their bruised and mangled bodies were found, days 
afterwards, near the Whirlpool Rapids. What fools 
they were! 

So the Bible says that the man who is unteachable, 
and self-opinionated, who declines the guidance of 
Reason, is playing the fool, because Reason is God's 
gift, and to slight it is to slight Him. He requires 
of us a readiness, nay an anxiety to be taught. The 
Scriptures are full of denunciations against the 
pride, self-sufficiency and unteachableness of man. 
To one who knows better than the rest of men, as the 
self-willed, self-satisfied, self-sufficient man thinks he 
does, any kind of instruction and advice must appear 
as an impertinence. Only let a young man come 
under the spell of this fatal sorcery, and not only are 
all aspirations after higher attainments at an end, 
but from that moment the movement of the character 
becomes infallibly retrograde. Nothing makes a man 
so unmanageable as self-conceit; and after loving 
counsels are given and refused; after solemn warn- 
ings are repeatedly disregarded and scorned, God 
leaves a man to himself, and gives him over to a 
reprobate mind. 

It is this same word which is used in Proverbs 
14 : 9, ' ' Fools make a mock at sin. ' ' They are so 
unteachable, so obstinate and blind, that sin either in 
themselves or in others is little else than a comedy. 
It affords food for a pleasantry, and if not quite an 
occasion for a jest, it is something so insignificant 
and slight as to be extenuated, minimized and white- 
washed. 



PLAYING THE FOOL 13 

On one occasion Jesus linked blindness and folly 
together. He said, when addressing the Pharisees: 
' 'Ye fools and blind." The fool is blind to the les- 
sons of experience ; he refuses to profit by the beacon- 
lights, the ''danger" signals that are found along 
life's pathway. It is all in vain that "Safety 
First" is ever put before his eyes. He is deter- 
mined, as the Scotch would say, to "gang his own 
gait," and he has generally to pay pretty heavily 
for his folly. And there are few who pity him. 

Kefuse, I entreat you, to look at any pictures 
which offend against the moral proprieties and lower 
the moral sense, by making sin — and especially cer- 
tain kinds of sin — the subject of open or covert 
jesting, the centre around which the amusement of 
the play gathers, the pivot on which the humour of 
the plot revolves. That is to make a mock at sin. 

It is a notorious fact that the theatrical produc- 
tions that succeed the best and find the most favour 
with the crowd are those that are interlarded with 
allusions to vice, the vice that fills the Divorce 
Courts and that quenches the happiness of thou- 
sands of domestic circles. That man is a fool who 
mocks at that kind of sin, for of all sins it is the 
most degrading and blinding, and entails the in- 
evitable retribution of God on the persons of the 
transgressors. 

An amusement may be quite harmless to you, and 
yet it may be purchased by the injury or even the 
irreparable ruin of those who provide it. No Chris- 
tian can possibly enjoy a pleasure which brings 
spiritual or moral ruin to any of his fellow-creatures. 
If you frequent the theatre it is your duty to deter- 
mine whether the entertainment is working for tr 
injury of those who give it. You dare not — as you 
brother's keeper, as one who must one day stand at 



14 GUARDING THE OUTPOSTS 

the bar of God to give an account of the deeds done 
in the body — march over the fallen souls of your 
brethren and sisters for a few hours' amusement, 
and then say when that day of accounting arrives: 
1 'I did not know." 

I have read of a company of settlers who were 
building a cabin for themselves in a South American 
forest. They had not dug deep enough, and they 
had not looked close enough, and in consequence be- 
gan to run up their cabin just over a nest of rattle- 
snakes. For a time the reptiles kept quiet, neither 
axe nor hammer disturbed them. But when eve- 
ning came and the fire was lighted, and the men 
proceeded to take their ease by the warmth of its 
ruddy glow, the hidden reptiles awoke, uncoiled 
their stiffened folds, and raised their evil heads 
through the gaps and crevices of the half-finished 
house. 

Take care lest you build on a like foundation. 
Take care lest you provide yourself with like com- 
panions. If in your conversation "fast living," as 
it is called, is the subject of light, profane and dan- 
gerous allusion, and you laugh at that kind of sin 
which gives spice to your daily gossip, you are play- 
ing the fool, because you are making mock at sin. 

There are young men both in colleges and camps 
whose speech is little short of a pestilence. "Their 
throat is an open sepulchre ' ' — the figure is not mine 
but the Psalmist's. What does a sepulchre hold? 
Corruption and rottenness. When the slab is re- 
moved and the sepulchre is opened, an offensive 
poison is exhaled, and the atmosphere is polluted 
for yards around. There is the smell of that animal 
of evil-odour, called the skunk, about their talk. 
Again I say, when you listen to that kind of conver- 
sation and laugh at it, you may think yourself 



PLAYING THE FOOL & 

"smart"; but the Bible calls you a fool, because 
you make a mock at sin. 

Keep your mouth as with a bridle, or better still, 
offer the Psalmist's prayer: "Set a watch, O Lord, 
before the door of my lips, that I offend not with 
my tongue." In your leisure moments, when you 
are off guard, and the devil is consequently the most 
on the watch, in your recreation, in your walks, let 
no corrupt or profane communication proceed out 
of your mouth ; for by your words you will be 
justified, and by your words you will be condemned. 
Never suffer that which is your distinguishing glory, 
that which lifts you above the animals — your power 
of speech, to be set on fire of hell, and so made to 
subserve the cruel purposes of the Destroyer of the 
souls of men. And be determined so to live that you 
will become an incarnate conscience, making putrid 
talk impossible in your presence. 

In a most suggestive sermon, Dr. David Smith 
points out that the word "fool" in the fourteenth 
psalm, — ' ' The fool hath said in his heart there is no 
God," — is another word from the one we have been 
thinking about. He says: "The Hebrew word for 
'fool' in this instance is very interesting and in- 
structive; and it defines the Psalmist's attitude and 
sheds a flood of light on the intention of the Psalm. 
It means properly 'withered,' being the word which 
occurs in the first Psalm where it is said of the godly 
man that he is 'like a tree planted by the streams 
of water, that bringeth forth its fruit in its season, 
whose leaf also doth not wither.' The fool here is 
one whose soul is withered, shrivelled and atrophied ; 
and if you glance at the Psalm, you will see what it 
is that has wrought the mischief. It is not intel- 
lectual aberration, but moral depravity — the blight 
of uncleanness, the canker of corruption." 



16 GUARDING THE OUTPOSTS 

And so the Psalm goes on: ''They are corrupt, 
they have done abominable works; there is none 
that doeth good. They are all gone aside ; they are 
together become filthy; there is none that doeth 
good, no not one." So that it is those very sins we 
have been thinking about, the sins about which there 
is more coarse and covert jesting than any other, 
that wither the soul. It is the man whose soul is 
shrivelled and burnt up by sin that says " there is 
no God." Atheism has always a moral cause. 

Possibly there are those who will be reading these 
lines who are convicted of this sin, and whose long- 
ing desire is for forgiveness for the past, and for 
strength to live a pure, noble life for the future. 
Let me close with a story. 

A gifted lawyer, named John Carr, became a judge 
in one of the courts of North Carolina. One day 
there came before him a criminal, charged with an 
offence, and convicted. The judge pronounced 
sentence upon him: "One hundred dollars, or jail 
for four weeks." Then the judge looked at the 
criminal and said: "John, do you know me?" 
' ' No, ' ' was the reply, " I do not know your honour. ' ' 
Then the judge said : ' ' Don 't you remember Johnnie 
Carr? We both had the same name, and used to go 
to school together in a certain village." "Oh," 
said the man, "is that you?" "Yes," said the 
judge, "I am John Carr, and I remember all the 
good times we had together when we were boys ; and 
now here you are a criminal, and I am your judge. 

"Now I am going to help you out," said the 
judge. "I will pay your fine and I want you to be 
determined to be an honest man from this time on. ' ' 
The judge then wrote a cheque for one hundred 
dollars, gave it to the clerk of the court, and said: 
"Let the prisoner go free." The man burst into 



PLAYING THE FOOL 17 

tears as he looked at the judge, and said: "Thank 
you, judge, I will do the best I can to be worthy of 
your goodness. " 

Jesus Christ has paid your debt to the uttermost 
farthing; and He will do for you what that kind- 
hearted judge could not do. He will give you a 
new heart; He will give you a distaste, a disrelish 
for sin, and a love for holiness. He will be your 
strength as well as your salvation. He will fight 
your battles for you. No weapon that is formed 
against you shall prosper ; and in Him you shall not 
only win the fight, but come off more than con- 
queror. He is the only one that can save you from 
playing the fool. 

"He breaks the power of cancelled sin, 
He sets the prisoner free; 
His blood can make the foulest clean. 
His blood avails for thee." 



II 

THE STORY OF THE SIRENS 
Part 1 

ULYSSES, the hero of Troy, had won a great 
victory over the goddess Circe; so one of 
those wonderful stories of the old Greeks 
tells us. Circe welcomed all wanderers to her pal- 
ace, and set before them meat and drink. But in 
her viands she mixed enchantments, that could alter 
the shape of men. When her banqueters had eaten 
and drunken, she struck them with her wand, and 
forthwith they lost the shape of men, and were 
endued with the form of beasts. Her unsuspecting 
victims became, under her wicked enchantment, 
hairy swine. The comrades of Ulysses were the 
latest victims of her wiles, and Ulysses was sad. 

Hermes, the giver of wealth, put Ulysses in pos- 
session of an antidote to the charms of the goddess, 
so that her enchantments failed. The great Greek 
warrior, the stormer of cities, came to the palace of 
Circe. She came forth to meet him; and prayed 
him to be seated at the banquet. He feasted on her 
viands and wine, and then the goddess stretched 
forth her wand, thinking to add Ulysses, the veteran 
navigator and leader, to her many victims : ' ' Go now 
to thy sty, son of Laertes/' she said, "and mingle 
among the swine thy companions. ' ' 

But her enchantment failed; Ulysses remained 
himself. Drawing his sword he rushed upon the 

18 



THE STORY OF TEE SIRENS 19 

enchantress and the palace echoed with her shrieks. 
"Who art thou!" she said; ''how hast thou escaped 
my wiles. Never mortal man avoided them before; 
but thou hast thy wisdom from the gods." 

"Disenchant my companions, goddess!" said 
Ulysses, "else thy punishment is at hand; and thou 
shalt not be treacherous again." 

Circe trembled and obeyed. She went forth into 
the court, and Ulysses followed her. With her wand 
she touched his companions, and spoke the mystic 
word ; their shape came again, and they stood trans- 
formed from swine to men, before their mighty 
leader. Then was there great joy in their hearts. 

Part 2 

When Circe saw that her charms availed not to 
retain Ulysses in her palace, she spoke a word in his 
ear, a word of prudent counsel: "Avoid the Sirens," 
she said, "that dwell in the island of Pelorus. Their 
voice is sweet, but deadly; none ever listened to it 
and lived. He that tarries to hear that song, can 
never tear himself from it. He is rooted as a tree 
to the island, till he pines and dies of hunger. But 
since thou must needs pass their dwelling, I will 
show thee a refuge from destruction. Fill the ears 
of thy comrades with wax, and bid them lean on 
the oars. Thyself, if thou wiliest it, listen to the 
song ; but first be well bound to the mast. ' ' 

"Spread the sails to the wind!" said Ulysses, 
"and let the ship bend her course to Ithara." 
Ithara was his home. 

Presently night came down on the sea, and Ulysses 
told the story of the Sirens to his companions, and 
of the counsel of Circe. "And if," he said, "the 
melody beguiles me also, so that I make signs to you 



20 GUARDING THE OUTPOSTS 

to stay your speed, I charge you to disobey my 
words, and to bend more strongly to your oars. I 
myself am a mortal man; and may err like mortal 
men. ' ' 

So saying he laid him down to sleep, and his 
comrades were stretched in the hold of the vessel. 
But when Aurora drove forth her chariot from the 
glorious gates of day, Ulysses sprang up from his 
hard couch. Calling his companions around him, he 
gave pure white wax to each with which they filled 
their ears. Then they bound Ulysses to the strong 
mast; fastened him with thongs and cables, lest he 
should yearn for the melody of the Sirens, and 
should cast himself into the sea. Having done this 
they addressed themselves to their daily labours. 

Ulysses stood imprisoned at his own mast. When 
mid-day was bright in the sky, and the sun looked 
down fiercely on land and sea, Sicily arose, like a 
blue cloud from the horizon, lovely in the hazy dis- 
tance. Capes and headlands jutted out upon the 
foaming sea, but chief among the thousand prom- 
ontories was the giant height of Pelorus. Less than 
a league from its foot, an island lifted itself up from 
the deep. Thither, sped by a favouring gale, the 
vessel bent her way. 

When he was as far from the beach as an archer, 
at three shots, might send a winged arrow, Ulysses 
caught a distant strain, sweet and luscious as honey. 
It stole into his mind, — it overpowered all his re- 
solve, — he was captive to the melody of the Sirens. 
Louder and still louder came the strains of melody 
and evermore sweeter. It was not as the melody of 
earth, and every moment Ulysses listened, his love 
for his home in Ithara grew less. The voice of the 
Sirens came still lovelier and more enchanting over 
the waters. A long time he struggled with his 



TEE STORY OF THE SIRENS 21 

shame; at last the melody prevailed. The music of 
the Sirens had conquered Ulysses. 

"Loose me! Loose me!" he cried. "Speed the 
vessel whither ye will; but let me abide with the 
Sirens!" He threatened, he wept, he sued, he en- 
treated, he commanded. He cried out with tears 
and passionate imprecations to be loosed, but the 
oars of his men only moved the faster. Despite his 
signs, motions, gestures and promises of mountains 
of gold, if they would only set him free, the men 
only bound him the faster to the mast, and confined 
him by threefold thongs. The mind of Ulysses was 
torn within him; and it was agony to depart from 
the island. When they were at the nearest point he 
raged and tore at his bonds like an imprisoned lion. 
But onwards and still onwards the vessel went, and 
at last the enchanting notes of the Sirens died away 
and the zone of temptation was passed. Not, how- 
ever, till the island had faded in the horizon did his 
comrades unbind his arms. 

Paet 3 

The Argonauts, in pursuit of the Golden Fleece, 
came near this fatal island. The shores were strewn 
with the bones of the victims of the Sirens, for all 
who yielded to their enchantments perished. Jason, 
one of the noblest of the heroes, who was possessed 
of great comeliness and terrible manhood, was in 
command of this expedition. 

As they neared the island all on board the vessel 
caught the songs of the Sirens. "Beware!" cried 
Medeia, "beware all heroes; these are rocks of the 
Sirens! You must pass close by them, for there is 
no other channel ; but those who listen to that song 
are lost ! ' ' 



22 GUARDING THE OUTPOSTS 

Then Orpheus, the king of all the minstrels, spoke : 
"Let them match their song against mine. I have 
charmed stones, and trees, and dragons, how much 
more the hearts of men ! ' f 

They could see the Sirens ; three fair maidens sit- 
ting on the beach, beneath a red rock in the setting 
sun, among beds of crimson poppies and golden 
asphodel. Their silvery voices stole over the golden 
waters, and all things stayed and listened ; the gulls 
sat in white lines along the rocks; on the beach 
great seals lay basking, and kept time with lazy 
heads; and shoals of silver fish came up to listen, 
and whispered as they broke the shining calm. 

As the heroes listened, the oars fell from their 
hands, their heads drooped on their breasts, and 
they closed their heavy eyes. They dreamed, till all 
their toil seemed foolishness and they thought no 
more of their honour and renown. They were fast 
yielding to the enchantment, when Medeia cried: 
1 ' Sing louder, Orpheus ! sing a bolder strain ! Wake 
up these hapless sluggards, or none of them will ever 
see the land of Hellas again. ' ' 

Then Orpheus lifted his harp, and crashed his 
cunning hand across the strings ; and his voice rose 
like a trumpet through the still evening air; into 
the air it rushed like thunder, till the rocks rang 
and the sea; and into the souls of the infatuated 
heroes it rushed like wine ; till all hearts were thrilled 
and beat fast within their breasts. 

So Orpheus sang, till his voice completely drowned 
that of the Sirens, and the heroes caught their oars 
again; and they cried: "We will be men like 
Perseus, and we will dare and suffer to the last. 
Sing thy song again, brave Orpheus, that we may 
forget the Sirens and their spell!" And he sang 
his song again. 



THE STORY OF THE SIRENS 23 

And as Orpheus sang, the heroes dashed their oars 
into the sea, and kept time to his music ; faster and 
faster they sped, and the Sirens' voices died behind 
them, in the hissing of the foam along their wake. 

But Butes, who had leaped from the vessel before 
Orpheus drowned the song of the Sirens with his 
music, had reached the fatal island. "I come," he 
cried, "I come, fair maidens, to live and die here, 
listening to your song ! ' ' 

They saw him kneel down before the Sirens. He 
cried, "Sing on! sing on!" But he could say no 
more, for a charmed sleep came over him, he forgot 
all heaven and earth, and never looked at that sad 
beach around him, all strewn as it was with the 
bones of men. 

Then slowly rose up those three fair sisters, with 
a cruel smile upon their lips ; and slowly they crept 
down toward him, like leopards who creep upon 
their prey; and their hands were like the talons of 
eagles as they stepped across the bones of their 
victims to enjoy their cruel feast. And Butes was 
added to their many victims. 

Part 4 

And now for the lessons of these stories which 
are found among the beautiful myths that cloud 
the dawn of Grecian history. I think it is more 
than likely you have been reading the lessons as 
you have been reading the stories. 

The first lesson is that all kinds of intemperance, 
whether in eating, drinking, money-making, politics, 
or in any other direction, has a tendency to turn 
men into swine. And, as Dr. J. H. Jowett so 
strikingly says: "That men are contented to 
be as pigs in the mire, is the clearest evidence 



24 GUARDING THE OUTPOSTS 

that their crowns and dignities have been burnt 
away. ' ' 

The second lesson is that negations and prohibi- 
tions are not sufficient. Ulysses longed to answer 
the enchanting voice of the Sirens. Had he not 
been bound he would have cast himself into the sea, 
and would have perished with their victims. His 
men were only saved by the white wax with which 
their ears were filled. 

Not long ago, in a certain city in Indiana, a 
woman was talking to the prisoners behind the bars. 
She told them there were ten ' ' don 'ts ' ' in the Bible, 
and, if they would only obey those "don'ts," when 
they got out of prison, they would never get in 
again. Confucius and Buddha could have given 
advice equally as good. It is not by negation that 
men are saved. There is a glorious positiveness 
about the Christian life. That is the teaching of 
the third lesson. "Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall 
not fulfil the lusts of the flesh/' 

Welcome Jesus, the Divine Orpheus on board; 
and as He makes His heavenly music in your soul, 
the voices of the Sirens will lose their charm; you 
will have no ear for their enchantments, and the 
islands of temptation will be passed in safety. He 
waits for your call to take control; and to become 
not only Saviour, but King of your life. The part 
played by Ulysses was heroic, but Jason, by having 
Orpheus on board, acted a much wiser part, for 
the Orphean lyre is always better than the Ulyssean 
wax. 



Ill 

THE BEAST-LIFE 

IT almost gives you a start to discover that in 
the Bible, man in his depravity and corruption, 
his sensuality and indifference to holy things, 
is compared unfavourably to no fewer than nineteen 
or twenty forms of animal life. 

Here is the list, for which chapter and verse could 
be given in every case. The ass, the bear, the boar, 
the bullock, the dog, the fox, the jackal, the goat, 
the horse, the horseleech, the leopard, the lion, the 
mule, the ox, the serpent, the swine, the vulture, 
the viper and the wolf. 

The whole round of the animal creation is ex- 
plored to find types of the sins of which men are 
guilty: stupidity, violence, rage, obstinacy, ferocity, 
rapacity; bloodthirstiness and cruelty, malice and 
malignity, cunning and fraud, depredation and de- 
struction, stubbornness and insensibility, wilfulness 
and waywardness, insatiate greed and selfishness, 
treachery and stealthiness, wrath and hate, insinuat- 
ing flattery and subtlety, sensuality and beastliness, 
slander and venom, and every conceivable form of 
wickedness. 

That is a catalogue that makes one shudder. ' ' The 
natural man," says Dr. W. L. Watkinson, "is a 
menagerie. The scientist stands by us in saying 
that. He tells us that man's heart is a dark forest, 
where wild beasts roam, and where they hiss and 
snarl, scream and bite. He says they came out of 

S5 



26 GUARDING THE OUTPOSTS 

those primeval forests in your ancestral days and 
are the survival of the animality of your origin. 
We won't quarrel with him about that. But the 
wild beasts are there, the ape, the cockatrice, the 
wolf and the leopard — all the wild passions are 
there — and Jesus Christ is the tamer of these wild 
passions. ' ' 

Long centuries ago Plato depicted the soul under 
the figure of a many-headed monster, a lion, and a 
man combined in one form. The man representing 
the higher nature, the reason ; the lion representing 
the passionate element; and the many-headed mon- 
ster representing the lusts and appetites. ' ' 

Some will remember Tennyson's description of 
the isle of Britain "till Arthur came." 

" There grew great tracts of wilderness, 
Wherein the beast was ever more and more, 
But man was less and less, till Arthur came. 
. . . Then he drave 

The heathen; after, slew the beast, and felled 
The forest, letting in the sun, and made 
Broad pathways for the hunter and the knight, 
And so returned." 

Which picture is an allegory. "Wherein the beast 
was ever more and more, but man was less and 
less." — Is that a picture of your life? If you are 
sorrowfully obliged to confess it is, this chapter is 
written to tell you that you need not despair — 
God will forgive you all but your despair — for 
by welcoming the Divine King Arthur as your De- 
liverer, and by crowning Him as your King, you 
will find to your exceeding joy, that He will slay 
the beast, and drive out the foes that have van- 
quished you and spoiled your life. He will restore 
all the waste places of the soul, letting in the sun; 
and out of wild confusion He will bring forth settled 
peace and ordered beauty. 



TEE BEAST-LIFE 27 

A man came to one of the best known preachers 
in this land and said: " Again and again the passion 
of my flesh rises up and faces me, even in the midst 
of my work. Sometimes I have to get up at night 
and walk for hours to fight this beast, this animal, 
this flesh.' ' But he said, ''Slowly I am getting the 
mastery, and Christ is being crowned in my life. ' ' 
The man who made that confession had the leader- 
ship of over two thousand students, and one of those 
students said : ' * That man can do anything he wants 
to do in this University." It was a desperate fight 
with the beast-life. 

I can imagine some one saying, "That is what I 
have tried to do scores of times, but the beast has 
obtained the mastery over me, and I have gone down 
in the conflict. ' ' Not for a moment would I suggest 
that the strongest determination on your part not 
to be mastered is unnecessary, but I would strongly 
emphasize the glorious fact that your beast-life, in 
all its hateful manifestations, was taken by Jesus 
Christ to the Cross of Calvary, so that, in identifica- 
tion with Him, you may be absolutely victorious 
over it. His victory was for you. His overcomings 
are all reckoned to your account, if, by intelligent 
faith, you will that it should be so. 

I like to think of myself as lying in His arms 
when He hung for my transgressions on the rugged 
Cross. I think of myself as dying with Him. I 
lie there still, and am carried with Him to the rocky 
sepulchre, being buried with Him; for burial is the 
seal and certificate of death. Still in His loving 
arms I lie, and come forth with Him from the tomb 
in resurrection victory, to walk henceforth in "new- 
ness of life." My beast-life is dead in the reckon- 
ing of God. It died in Christ's death to sin. It 
shall be dead in my reckoning too. That is a reckon* 



28 GUARDING THE OUTPOSTS 

ing that always comes out right, and it is a reckoning 
God cannot fail to honour, because He commands 
it: " Like wise — once for all — reckon yourself to be 
dead indeed unto sin and alive to God, through 
Jesus Christ our Lord." Ponder the sixth chapter 
of Paul's letter to the Romans if you would know 
still more about the wondrous secret. 

Satan loves to get us to fight against the beast in 
our own strength, just as if no victory had ever been 
won for us. He knows the beast will master us, 
unless we call in the Victor of Calvary. The wail 
of the man who is fighting the beast is : "0 wretched 
man that I am, who shall deliver me" from this 
beast-life ? The shout of the man who has seen that 
the victory was won for him on Calvary, is : ' ' I 
thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord!" "I 
can do all things in Christ who strengthens me." 
"Thanks be to God who always leadeth me in tri- 
umph in Jesus Christ." 

Dr. J. H. Jowett once told his congregation in 
New York the following remarkable story: Late 
one evening there came to him his dearest friend, 
as he now is. He was filled with spiritual misery 
and unrest. They talked about the deepest things 
until far on into the night. On going home this 
friend flung himself into the chair by his study fire, 
and he said: "Lord, wilt Thou reveal to me what 
there is amiss." And then he says: "As clear as 
anything I ever saw in this world, I saw a range of 
mountains, snow-clad mountains of tremendous 
height, shining in the light of God." 

He went to bed, and in the night this vision was 
continued in a dream. In his drpam he went down 
into the valley, and when he got to the very bottom, 
he found himself surrounded, to his horror, with all 
manner of loathsome things; savage beasts were 



THE BEAST-LIFE 29 

there, showing their teeth, and glowering upon 
him. 

He looked at them and then he saw that they 
were incarnations of his own past sins. He recog- 
nized them, that one and this one and the other; 
his impurity, his deceitfulness, his pride, his pas- 
sion. And he said: "I was so ashamed!" And 
then he heard a footfall. "Instinctively I knew it 
was Jesus. He came nearer and nearer, and I was 
so consumed with shame, that I took a kind of cloak 
I was wearing and I threw it over my head. 

"The footfalls came nearer and nearer, until at 
last they stopped beside me. I knew it was my 
Lord, and I was too ashamed to look up. After 
what seemed to me a long time, I threw back my 
cloak and looked, and lo ! all the unclean beasts had 
fastened themselves upon Him." Then he awoke, 
and lo! the burden of his sin was gone. 

"My sin, the bliss of that glorious thought, 
My sin, not in part but the whole, 
Is nailed to His Cross, and I bear it no more; 
Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, my soul." 

One of the most instructive of the fairy tales we 
learned in our childhood, is that of Beauty and the 
Beast. You remember how the merchant was to be 
put to death, for plucking the bunch of roses in the 
garden of the Beast, and how his youngest and 
fairest daughter, whom he loved the most, offered 
to take his place and suffer his doom. 

When Beauty first saw the frightful form of the 
Beast, she was dreadfully afraid, and shrank from 
him ; but by and by, as she got to know him better, 
she began to feel pity for him, and was touched with 
his gentleness and kindness. 

At last she agreed to marry him; and then a 
wonderful thing happened. Instead of the ugly 



30 GUARDING THE OUTPOSTS 

Beast, she saw a graceful and handsome young 
Prince, who thanked her with tenderest expressions 
for having delivered him from the wicked enchant- 
ment that had transformed him into a beast. 

The moral of this familiar story, which is as old 
as the hills, is that it is the pure, disinterested, 
unfathomable love of Jesus, who consented to take 
upon Him our nature, and die in our room and 
stead, and who unites Himself to every surrendered 
and believing soul in an everlasting union, that 
takes away all the marks of the beast nature, and 
transforms us into His own lovely likeness. In- 
stead of the beast-life we become partakers of the 
Christ-life. Slightly altering Paul's words in the 
seventh of Romans we may say: ''We are become 
dead to the beast by the body, or death of Christ; 
that we should be married to Him who is raised from 
the dead, and so bring forth fruit unto God." 

The legend runs that there once stood in an old 
baronial castle a musical instrument upon which no 
one could play. It was very complicated in its 
mechanism, and during years of disuse the dust had 
gathered and clogged it, while dampness and varia- 
tions of temperature had robbed the strings of their 
tone. Various experts had tried to repair it, but 
without success, and so when the hand of a player 
swept over the chords it awoke only discordant and 
unlovely sounds. 

But there came one day to the castle a man of 
another sort. He was the maker of the instrument 
and saw what was amiss, and what was needed for 
its repair. With loving care and skill he freed the 
wires from the encumbering dust and adjusted those 
that were awry, and brought the jangling strings 
into tune, and presently the hall rang with bursts 
of exquisite music. 



TEE BEAST-LIFE 31 

It is so with these souls of ours, so disordered by 
sin that everything is in confusion and at cross- 
purposes. It is not until the Divine Maker comes 
and begins the task of repair and readjustment that 
our threefold nature can be set right and made 
capable of the harmonies for which it was originally 
constructed. 

He alone can remove the encumbering dust, and 
bring melody and harmony out of what has been so 
discordant and inharmonious. He can make your 
life one long Hallelujah Chorus. Will you not 
allow Him to work this miracle in your nature? 

God, take the reins of my life! 

1 have driven it blindly to left and to right, 
In mock of the rock, in the chasm's despite, 
Where the brambles were rife 

In the blaze of the sun and deadliest black of the night, 

God, take the reins of my life. 

For I am so weary and weak, 

My hands are a-quiver, and so is my heart, 

And my eyes are too tired for the tear-drops to start, 

And the worn horses reek 

With the anguishing pull and the hot, heavy harness' smart, 

While I am all weary and weak. 

Now, Lord, without tarrying, now! 

While eyes can look up, and while reason remains; 

And my hand yet has strength to surrender the reins; 

Ere death stamp my brow 

And pour coldness and stillness thro' all the mad course of 

my veins; 
Come, Lord, without tarrying, now! 

1 yield Thee my place, which is Thine, 
Appoint me to lie on the chariot floor; 

Yea, appoint me to lie at Thy feet, and no more; 

W 7 hile the glad axles shine, 

And the happy wheels run on their course to the heavenly 

door; 
Now Thou hast my place which is Thine! 

— Amos Russell Wells. 



IV 

THE RUIN OF A HERO 

THE story of Samson is told, as all the Bible 
stories are told, without any sort of extenu- 
ation or concealment. The Word of God 
paints its heroes as they really are ; in their strength 
and in their weakness; in their faith and in their 
failure; in their right-doing and in their wrong- 
doing. When Oliver Cromwell sat for his por- 
trait, the artist proposed that he cover a disfigur- 
ing wart, on one of his cheeks, by resting his head 
on his hand. The blunt Protector said gruffly: 
"No; paint me as I am; warts and all." That is 
just how the Bible paints its pictures. 

Samson's portrait is a full-length one. It is 
drawn from his birth to his death. It stands like 
a beacon-light on a rock-bound coast; or like the 
red light that arrests the express train, and says: 
"Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest 
he fall." The story is told in four chapters. 

Chapter the First 

The story of Samson's birth is as beautiful and as 
tender as a summer's morning. What more could 
God have done for him than He did? From his 
birth, and indeed long before it, the gifts of God 
were showered upon him. Could any child have 
come into the world under happier circumstances? 
We see his father and mother resolving that they will 



TEE RUIN OF A EERO 33 

not take God's gift apart from God's purposes. 
They will not plan their boy's life to please them- 
selves. He must of course be the arbiter of his own 
destiny, but they determine they will do all they can 
to guide him into the destiny God has prepared for 
him. 

A deliverer was badly needed in Israel, for this 
was one of the darkest hours in the nation's his- 
tory. The Ammonites, the Midianites and the 
Moabites had all conquered them in turn, and now 
the Philistines were their oppressors. Here is an 
ominous verse recorded in the same chapter that 
tells of Samson's birth: "And the children of Israel 
did evil again in the sight of the Lord; and the 
Lord delivered them into the hands of the Philis- 
tines forty years" (Judges 13:1). As in the days 
of Saul and Jonathan, all the weapons of war were 
taken from the Hebrews, and if a man wanted to 
sharpen his ploughshare he had to take it to a Philis- 
tine forge (see I. Sam. 13:19-22). Well might 
Samson's parents hope that they had given to Israel 
the deliverer who was so greatly needed. 

Samson was a Nazarite. The word simply means 
separated or set apart. A Nazarite was forbidden 
the fruit of the vine in every form (see Num. 6: 
1-8). That prohibition was simply intended to teach 
the Nazarite that one who was separated to God must 
not become intoxicated with the world's draughts of 
pleasure. It was the Old Testament putting of the 
Apostle Paul's admonition: "Be not drunk with 
wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the 
Spirit," 

A Nazarite must not allow a razor to come on his 
head. His flowing locks openly announced his sepa- 
rated state. Those unshorn locks revealed the fact 
that he was not his own. 



34 GUARDING THE OUTPOSTS 

A Nazarite was forbidden to touch the dead. He 
must be found among the living, not among the 
dead. All human relationships had to be sub- 
ordinate to higher claims (see Luke 14: 26-33). So 
Samson grows up, separated to God, and known by 
his very appearance to be so separated. 

Chapter the Second 

We see Samson now as a young man in the Camp 
of Dan (Judges 13: 25). This was the place where 
the men of his tribe were wont to assemble for such 
military training as was possible without weapons 
of war. This was where the older men held council 
concerning their deplorable condition, and discussed 
the possibilities of deliverance from their cruel op- 
pressors. Around the camp-fires Samson heard the 
wondrous stories of the brave days of old. The story 
of Gideon, his dream, his barley cakes, his brave 
three hundred, his pitchers and torches, would be- 
come as familiar to him as it is to us. How these 
stories of heroism must have moved his heart! So 
we read: "The Spirit of the Lord began to move 
him at times in the Camp of Dan." 

Will there not be some such gracious visitations of 
the Holy Spirit upon the Soldiers of the National 
Army in the camps where they are now assembled for 
training ? We have no doubt there will. Many will 
look back upon the camp as a sacred spot, for there 
they received, under some inspiring message, in some 
quiet hour of meditation, or perchance, as they 
perused a letter full of loving solicitude from father 
or mother, a clear call to a clean, noble and devoted 
life. 

Many have had such hours. Their eyes have been 
opened. In God's eternal whiteness they have seen 



TEE RUIN OF A HERO 35 

their own blackness and corruption; things have 
been appraised at their proper value; and a scorn 
for the world, with its gilded toys, has taken pos- 
session of the soul. They have cried out: 

" I have done at length with trifling; 
Henceforth, thou soul of mine, 
Thou must take up sword and gauntlet 
Waging warfare most Divine! " 

If no such moving of the Spirit has come to you, 
pray that you may not be any longer fooled by the 
devil; and that your eyes may not be so blinded as 
not to see of how much greater worth are the things 
that endure, compared with those that are but for 
a moment. 

Chapter the Third 

Now we see Samson in the city of Gaza. Gaza was a 
big commercial city, the chief seaport of the Philis- 
tines. It was like all such seaports a gay, wicked, 
pleasure-loving place, contrasting strikingly with the 
quiet of Dan, and its monotonous and uneventful 
home life. 

Gaza lay very near the Camp of Dan. It always 
does. There is no escaping it. It is at Gaza that 
your Nazariteship will be put to the test. It is at 
Gaza that tens of thousands of soldiers, who might 
have been heroes, have been ruined physically, 
morally and spiritually. Across the hospital doors, 
where hundreds of boys lie to-day, the victims of 
their own folly, you might write in letters of fire: 

RUINED IN GAZA. 

It is the same shameful story: "Then went Sam- 
son to Gaza and saw there a harlot, and went in 
unto her 7 ' (ch. 16:1). You find the duplicate of it 



36 GUARDING THE OUTPOSTS 

in the beginning of the Book. Our first parents gaze 
eagerly at the forbidden fruit. That fruit has an in- 
toxicating fascination. It exercises over them its 
fatal spell. To the wandering eyes and heart its 
sweetness is positively maddening. The serpent 
injects his venom into their minds. The restraining 
bands of conscience are fused, and drop away. The 
fires of passion flash and flame uncontrolled. The 
jewel of innocence is flung away. The sin is sinned, 
and at that very moment the glamour of the indulged 
passion is disenchanted, and the deluded and en- 
snared victim knows that he has eaten death, and 
that life can never be the same again: 

" Alas ! how easily things go wrong ! 
A word too much, or a glance too long, 
And there cometh a mist and a weeping rain 
And life is never the same again." 

My brother, you will be tempted as you go down 
to Gaza. The evil of impurity will confront you 
there as it did Samson. There can be no half meas- 
ures. To dally is often to be damned. To parley 
is to become a prey to the demon of lust ; hesitation 
to many has been hell. Tens of thousands of bright, 
promising lives have been ruined at Gaza. Sam- 
son 's story is written for your warning. Impurity 
is the only sin that you cannot grapple with; you 
have to run away from it. "When Lowell said : ' ' My 
life shall be a challenge not a truce," he did not 
mean that a m^n should mount a war-horse, and go 
searching for evil that he might combat it. He 
meant that his life should be a challenge to im- 
purity, not a truce with it. If you laugh at the 
indecent story; if you read the immoral book; if 
your familiars are unclean men, your life is a truce 
with this damning sin and not a challenge to it ; and 



TEE RUIN OF A EERO 37 

this searing, destructive sin of young manhood will 
soon reckon you among its victims. 

Chapter the Fourth 

Samson has fallen. Delilah has wormed the secret 
out of him. ''Tell me," she says, "what is the 
secret of your strength ? What makes the difference 
between you and other people ? What prevents you 
from coming and joining us?" 

Then her unholy hands are laid upon Samson's 
holy secret for an unholy purpose, and the hero of 
Israel is ruined. He gave himself away to a harlot. 
He thought, as thousands of young men have 
thought, that he could easily escape from the meshes 
of the snare which the devil was weaving about him. 
He thought that he, the Nazarite, could touch pitch 
and not be defiled; he could play with fire and not 
be burned ! others might be hopelessly ensnared, not 
so with him. That is Delilah's way. She gives her 
victims a long chain, certain that they will come 
back, even though they know her house is the way to 
hell. One day they find the chain has tightened 
upon them, and they have to stay where they are. 
The ruin is complete. 

1 ' Now I will retrieve ! ' ' says Samson : ' ' Now I will 
go out as at other times before, but he wist not that 
the Lord had departed from him. ' ' He had gone too 
far. He had sinned once too often. God is very 
patient and longsuffering, but you may overstep the 
bounds of His forbearance, for sin must be pun- 
ished or He would cease to be God. If you sow 
wild oats you cannot expect to reap tame wheat. 

Samson is again in Gaza, but his cruel enemies 
have now put out his eyes, and he is their prisoner. 
Look at him ! The man, who in the strength of God 



38 GUARDING TEE OUTPOSTS 

had struck terror into their hearts, and who had 
slain thousands of Philistines, is bound and blind, 
and is actually grinding corn for the very Philis- 
tines whose hosts he had routed, scattered and slain. 

Not satisfied with that degradation, the lords of the 
Philistines resolved that at a great feast held in 
honour of their god Dagon, and to celebrate their 
victory over Samson, the blind, fallen hero shall be 
called in to play the fool before them, for that is 
what "making sport" really means. 

Samson is brought out of prison with the bitter- 
ness of death in his soul. He has, however, one 
resource. He has broken his Nazarite vows; he has 
renounced his covenant ; he has east away a glorious 
opportunity of delivering his people; he has de- 
stroyed himself; but he has still the resource of 
prayer. 

There he stands resting for a moment after play- 
ing the fool, while the thousands look on in con- 
tempt and amusement. His hands are on the pillars 
that support the building and he prays: "0 Lord 
God, remember me, I pray Thee, and strengthen me, 
I pray Thee, only this once." It is a prayer that 
breathes penitence, dependence and humility. The 
prayer is answered, and putting forth the super- 
natural strength, once more restored to him, Sam- 
son sways himself backwards for a moment. The 
pillars tremble and give way; and amid shrieks, 
groans and curses, the whole building collapses, and 
the blind hero lies buried, with his enemies, amidst 
the hideous ruins. The record closes with the words : 
"And he bowed himself with all his might; and the 
house fell upon the lords, and upon all the people 
that were therein. So the dead which he slew at his 
death were more than they which he slew in his 
life." 



TEE RUIN OF A EERO 39 



SECRETARY DANIELS ON IMPURITY 

Dealing with the social evil as a menace to the nation's 
military efficiency, Secretary Daniels, in an address hefore 
the Clinical Congress of Surgeons of North America at 
Chicago, spoke in condemnation of the unpardonable pru- 
dery that endured a festering evil rather than have it 
exposed and eradicated. 

" There is not an army in the field," said he, " whose 
effectiveness is not reduced by reason of immoral diseases." 
The Secretary's figures are simply appalling. * ! During the 
last statistical year men of the American navy ios=* 141,- 
387 days' sickness from a small group of absolutely pre- 
ventable diseases, contracted by sin. This means tha^ 
every day throughout the year there were 456 men disabled 
by this disgraceful malady. Add to that the number of 
those required to care for the disabled, and we have enough 
men on the non-effective list each day to man a modern 
battleship. 

" In the navy in 1915 there were admitted for treatment 
for venereal diseases 112 persons in every 1,000. In the 
army 84 for every 1,000, the number in the army having 
decreased from 145 to the 1,000 after the passage of an act, 
stopping the pay of all soldiers admitted for treatment for a 
venereal disease. 

" It has been stated that at one time the equivalent of 
three entire Austrian divisions of 60,000 men was under 
treatment for venereal diseases, while the German army in 
Belgium, representing only a small part of the total German 
forces, is reported during the first five months of its occu- 
pation to have furnished 35,000 such patients. 

" Canadian and Australian officers deplore the ravages of 
this disgraceful and disgusting disease, while the latest 
figures from the British army gave 78,000 cases, and all 
other countries have also been weakened. 

" A Canadian authority says its ravages to-day are more 
terrible for Britain and Canada than Yimy Ridge, the 
Somme and Lehs. The time has come to realize that this 
subtlest foe of humanity, more deadly than smallpox or 
cancer or tuberculosis, must be conquered. 

" To-day, as never before, American manhood must be 
clean. We must have fitness ! America stands in need of 
every ounce of strength. We must cut out this cancer if 
we would live." 



THE SWORD OF DAMOCLES 

j 

ONE of the courtiers of an ancient monarch 
was full of envy at his King's supposed 
prosperity and immunity from peril. He 
thought that there was not a particle of truth in the 
saying, "Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown." 
The King's elevated rank, his great wealth and in- 
fluence, the luxuries he enjoyed, and the homage he 
received were such delightful experiences that no 
room could possibly be left for anxious thought or 
care. So Damocles thought. 

A hard experience had, however, taught the King 
that no station in life was exempt from life's sor- 
rows and anxieties, its perils and trials. He had 
found that he could no more boast of to-morrow than 
the meanest peasant in his realm, and he resolved 
to impress this lesson on his discontented courtier. 
The King therefore invited Damocles to share his 
gifts and honours, together with the fortunes of 
royalty. The wealth of a kingdom was placed at his 
disposal; royal robes of softest texture were pro- 
vided for him ; the servants of the King waited upon 
him, and Damocles sat down to a royal banquet. 
For a while he dismissed the cares and vexations of 
life; the responsibilities which had oppressed him 
were forgotten; his cup of enjoyment was full to 
the brim, and he was just concluding that his sur- 
mise as to the exemption of the King from all care 
and peril was correct, when something led him to 

40 



TEE SWORD OF DAMOCLES 41 

look for a moment towards the ceiling of the banquet- 
ing-hall, and he saw a sharp and heavy sword 
dangling over his head, suspended by a single 
hair. 

In a moment the Sicilian delicacies on which he 
had been feasting lost their flavour. The music of 
the royal orchestra ceased to charm him. What heart 
could he have for anything with that sword hanging 
over him, ready at any moment to fall upon his head. 
He was simply panic-stricken and terrified, such fear 
and trembling took possession of him, that with a 
pallid face he turned away from the feast which had 
promised him so much enjoyment. However was it 
that a single hair had carried the weight of the 
sword so long? 

Let him but escape from the banquet, which, at 
any moment, might prove a banquet of death, and he 
vowed he would never again envy the happiness of 
kings, nor imagine that they possessed immunity 
from anxiety or peril. 

The experience of Damocles at the banquet has 
served to warn many a thoughtless soul. It speaks 
still to those whose judgment is darkened by a fatal 
blindness; whose soul is benumbed into insensibility 
by the poison of sin ; who have not the faintest con- 
ception of the solemnity and responsibility of life; 
who have lost all sense of the relative value of things, 
and says, Remember the sword! There may be but 
a step between thee and death. 

Belshazzar, the last of the Chaldean kings, mighty 
monarch though he was, forgot the sword. He lived 
in the greatest splendour. His servants were 
princes ; his concubines were the daughters of kings. 
He could have had the counsel of wise men in ruling 
his vast empire, Daniel among the number, but he 
preferred the companionship and counsel of profli-. 



42 GUARDING THE OUTPOSTS 

gates. Here is the story of how the forgotten sword 
fell. 

It was night in Babylon. The shadows of her two 
hundred and fifty towers began to lengthen. The 
Euphrates rolled on, touched by the splendour 
of the setting sun. The gates of brass, burnished 
and glittering, opened and shut like doors of 
flame. The hanging gardens of Babylon, wet with 
the dew of the night, began to pour forth their 
fragrance. 

There is a royal feast at the King's palace! The 
chariots, with their prancing horses, dash up to the 
gates, while a thousand lords dismount with their 
ladies dressed in all the splendours of Tyrian purple 
and Syrian emerald. Their robes are enriched with 
princely embroideries brought from afar by camels 
across the desert, and by ships of Tarshish across the 
sea. 

Belshazzar 's guests sat down at no common ban- 
quet that night. All parts of the earth had con- 
tributed their richest viands to that table. This is 
how the story reads in the old Book : ' ' Belshazzar the 
King made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, 
and drank wine before the thousand. Belshazzar, 
while he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the 
golden and silver vessels which Nebuchadnezzar his 
father had taken out of the temple which was in 
Jerusalem; that the King and his lords, his wives 
and his concubines, might drink therein. Then they 
brought the golden vessels . . . and they drank 
wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of 
brass, of iron, of wood and of stone." 

Who ever read of anything so blasphemous and 
defiant? Even Nebuchadnezzar, in all his might, 
never dreamt of any such profanity as this. We will 
venture to adapt Byron's description of the scene in 



THE SWORD OF DAMOCLES 43 

Brussels on the eve of the battle of Waterloo, for 
slightly altered it applies to the scene in Babylon. 

" There was a sound of revelry by night, 
And Babylonia had gathered then 
Her beauty and her chivalry; and bright 
The lights shone o'er fair women and brave men. 
Music arose with its voluptuous swell, 
Soft eyes looked love to eyes which spoke again. 
They drink, they praise their gods in cups of wine; 
They dare to put to this vile use, vessels Divine. 
On with the feast! Let joy be unconfined; 
That tramp of stealthy feet without, is but the wind. 

But look ! What ails the King ! Support him lest he fall ! 
He sees the hand that writes his doom on yonder wall." 

"In the same hour came forth the fingers of a 
man's hand, and wrote over against the candlestick 
upon the plaster of the wall of the King's palace ; and 
the King saw part of the hand that wrote. Then the 
King's countenance was changed, and his thoughts 
troubled him ; and the joints of his loins were loosed, 
and his knees smote one against another. . . . And 
this is the writing that was written and the inter- 
pretation : 

MENE ; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and 
brought it to an end. 

TEKEL; thou art weighed in the balances, 
and art found wanting. 

PERES; thy kingdom is divided and given 
to the Medes and Persians. ' ' 
When the enchanters failed to interpret the writ- 
ing, Daniel quickly put an end to the King's sus- 
pense as to its meaning. He also reminded the 
panic-stricken King of Jehovah's dealings with his 
father Nebuchadnezzar. ' ' When his heart was lifted 
up, and his spirit was hardened that he dealt 
proudly, he was deposed from his kingly throne, 
and they took his glory from him : and he was driven 



44 GUARDING THE OUTPOSTS 

from the sons of men; and his heart was made like 
the beasts, and his dwelling was with the wild asses ; 
he was fed with grass like oxen, and his body was 
wet with the dew of heaven ; until he knew that the 
Most High God ruleth in the kingdom of men, and 
that He setteth over it whomsoever He will." 

Then, coming to the conduct of the crowned 
criminal who trembled before him on his golden 
chair, in the presence of his thousand lords and 
ladies, his wives and concubines; the fearless 
prophet of God said: "And thou his son, Bel- 
shazzar, hast not humbled thine heart, though thou 
knewest all this, but hast lifted up thyself against 
the Lord of heaven, . . . and thou hast praised the 
gods of silver and gold . . . which see not, nor hear, 
nor know : and the God in whose hand thy breath is, 
and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified. ' ' 

What about the sword ? There it had been, as he 
sat at the banquet, like the sword of Damocles, sus- 
pended over his head by a single hair, and the hair 
had broken! Cyrus with his mighty army was at 
that very moment in possession of the palace. For 
two years he had been laying siege to the city. He 
took advantage of Belshazzar's carousal, and at the 
very time when the sacrilegious revelry was at its 
height, the warriors of Cyrus turned the Euphrates 
out of its channel ; they, marched up the bed of the 
river beneath the walls ; they found the great brazen 
gates left open by the drunken Chaldean guards; 
and with a thousand gleaming swords they rushed 
upon the banqueters; the sword fell, and "that 
night was Belshazzar, King of the Chaldeans, slain. ' ' 

What admonitory words those words of Daniel's 
were: "Thou has not humbled thine heart though 
thou knewest all this." All Jehovah's disciplinary 
dealings with his father Nebuchadnezzar were lost 



THE SWORD OF DAMOCLES 45 

upon him. He knew all about the burning fiery fur- 
nace, and the appearance of a fourth in the midst of 
the flames like unto the Son of God; he knew all 
about his father's madness and its cause; he knew 
of his father's proclamation on his recovery from his 
insanity; he knew it all, but he forgot the sword. 
He trifled with God, crossed the dead-line and was 
lost. 

Daniel does not charge Belshazzar with drunken- 
ness, though he was drunk; nor with sacrilege, 
though he used those sacred vessels so profanely; 
nor with lasciviousness though there were tokens of 
it on every hand. Daniel passes from the superficial 
to the central. He lays no stress on the form of evil ; 
that is largely accidental. All the emphasis is 
thrown on the essence of sin, which consists in man's 
failure to glorify God, for to glorify God is the 
chief end of man. 

The supreme charge Daniel makes is: "The God 
in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy 
ways, hast thou not glorified." It is a startling 
summary of man 's wickedness ; and it is all the more 
startling because of its severe simplicity. Sin con- 
sists not so much in definite acts of wrong-doing as 
in a wrong relation to God, and if any man is not 
making it the definite business of his life to glorify 
God, his life is a ghastly failure, no matter what he 
or others may think or say about it. He is weighed 
in the balances of God and found wanting. 

There is another man, who, like Damocles, is feast- 
ing, oblivious of the fact that the sword is hanging 
over him. Listen ! He is talking to his soul. What 
a prosperous year he has had ! His barns are filled 
and bursting ; his bank account is bulging and swell- 
ing; his acres are constantly increasing, and his 
labourers are becoming more and more numerous. 



46 GUARDING THE OUTPOSTS 

"Soul," he says, "thou has much goods laid up for 
many years." He has had a strenuous life, now he 
is going to have many years of respite. ' • Soul, take 
thine ease!" He has been too busy to enjoy life; 
all his energies have been devoted to making his for- 
tune. "Soul, eat, drink and be merry." "But 
God!" He had forgotten there was a God. "This 
night," said the God he had ignored and failed to 
glorify, "this night shall thy soul be required of 
thee." That night the sword fell, and he lost four 
things. 

He lost his name, his neighbours and friends called 
him' clever but God called him ' ' fool. ' ' He lost his 
possessions. "Our last garment," says a grim 
Italian proverb, "is made without pockets." He 
dragged a poor, starved, shrivelled soul out into the 
darkness. His possessions went one way and he went 
another. He lost his ' ' soul. " " What shall it profit 
a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his 
own soul?" asks Jesus. He lost heaven. "So is 
every one that layeth up treasure for himself and 
is not rich toward God,." 

There is no strange handwriting on the wall, 
Through all the midnight hum no threatening call 
Nor on the marble floor the stealthy fall 
Of fatal footsteps. All is safe. " Thou fool ! 
The avenging deities are shod with wool." 

— Without a hiding-place 

To hide me from the terrors of Thy Face. — 

"Thy hiding-place is here 
In Mine own heart; wherefore the Roman spear 

For thy sake I accounted dear." — 

My Jesus! King of Grace. 

— Without a pool wherein 

To wash my piteous self and make me clean. — 

"My Blood hath washed away 
Thy guilt, and still I wash thee day by day: 
Only take heed to trust and pray." — 
lobd, help me to begin. 

— Chbistina Rossetti 



VI 

THREE OF KING DAVID'S GENERALS 

IT is quite customary to this day, for monarchs, 
on eventful occasions in their reign, to publish a 
list of the names of those whom they delight 
to honour. David had just been anointed at Hebron, 
king over all the twelve tribes. He was anointed 
three times as king. First of all, as you remember, 
he was anointed privately among his own family (I 
Sam. 16:33). Then he was anointed at Hebron. 
This time it was not a private but a public act, but it 
was only over Judah (II Sam. 2:4). Then there 
came this third anointing to which I have referred. 
It took place twenty years after the first, and seven 
years after the second. So we read: "Then came 
all the tribes of Israel to David unto Hebron . . . 
and they anointed David King over Israel" (II 
Sam. 5:1-3). "He reigned in Hebron over Judah 
seven years and six months, and in Jerusalem he 
reigned thirty-three years over all Israel and 
Judah" (ver. 5). 

We can well understand that on an occasion so 
memorable David should found the first order of 
chivalry, and give his thirty knights, as they would 
at one time have been designated, their special rank 
and high privileges; recording their names on the 
Roll of Honour. Hence we read : ' ' These also are the 
chief of the mighty men whom David had, who 
strengthened themselves with him in his kingdom, 
and with all Israel to make him King, according to 

47 



48 GUARDING THE OUTPOSTS 

the word of the Lord concerning Israel" (I Chron. 
11:10). 

David's elevation to the throne of all Israel was 
of course largely due to his own character and 
heroic deeds. But he could never have attained to 
this position of responsibility and dignity, had not 
these mighty men strengthened themselves with him 
to make him King. They did this we read, ''Ac- 
cording to the word of the Lord," that is to say, 
they took their part both then and afterwards, solely 
on the ground that they were carrying out the Divine 
will. 

It is instructive to note that fact. The heroes 
whose deeds of valour are recorded here were render- 
ing, whether they fully realized it or not, a real 
service to their race. The reign of King David 
had an important bearing upon the whole plan of 
God's Providence. It was an essential link in the 
whole redemptive chain. That fact invests the ex- 
ploits of these "mighty men" as they are called, 
with great significance. They helped to place David 
on the throne, and they sustained him on the throne, 
contributing to the prosperity of the nation, the glory 
of God, and the emancipation of their fellows. 

That eloquent preacher, Bishop Phillips Brooks, 
said, when Abraham Lincoln was assassinated: "If 
ever the face of a man writing solemn words glowed 
with a solemn joy, it must have been the face of 
Abraham Lincoln as he bent over the pages where 
the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 was growing 
into shape, and giving manhood and freedom as he 
wrote it to hundreds of thousands of his fellow- 
men. Here was an act that crowned the whole cul- 
ture of his life. All the past, the free boyhood in 
the woods, the free youth upon the farm, the free 
manhood in the honourable citizen's employment — * 



THREE OF KING DAVID'S GENERALS 49 

all his freedom gathered and completed itself in 
this. 

"As the swarthy multitudes came in, ragged, and 
tired, and hungry, and ignorant, but free for ever 
from anything but the memorial scars of the fetters 
and the whip ; singing rude songs in which the new 
triumph of freedom struggled and heaved below the 
sad melody that had been shaped for bondage ; as in 
their camps and hovels there grew up to their half- 
superstitious eyes the image of a great father almost 
more than man, to whom they owed their freedom — 
were they not half right?" 

And all who enlisted themselves, in response to 
Abraham Lincoln's call in the sixties, as Soldiers 
of Freedom, have a place on the roll of honour, like 
those whose names are written in the twenty-third 
chapter of the Second Book of Samuel. But for 
their valour the pen of Lincoln would never have 
signed that Emancipation Proclamation. They are 
gone, but 

. . . "To us are left 

Our buried heroes and their matchless deeds. 
These cannot pass; they hold the vital seeds 
Which in the far, untracked, unvisioned hour 
Burst forth to vivid bud and glorious flower." 

Are we not to-day witnessing this "bursting forth 
to bud and flower" in the formation of a great Na- 
tional Army, designated by President Woodrow Wil- 
son, "Soldiers of Freedom"? 

King David's heroes were divided into several 
classes: "This is the number of mighty men whom 
David had : Jashobeam, an Hachmomite, the chief of 
the captains: he lifted up his spear against eight 
hundred slain by him at one time." He well de- 
serves to be remembered as General Jashobeam, for 



50 GUARDING THE OUTPOSTS 

as the record tells us he was "the chief of the cap- 
tains' ' (II Sam. 23:8). He was appointed com- 
mander of the first brigade of twenty-four thousand 
men. (See I Chron. 27:2.) 

Then came General Eleazar. He was "one of the 
three mighty men with David when they defied the 
Philistines that were gathered together to battle, and 
the men of Israel were gone away, he arose, and 
smote the Philistines until his hand was weary, and 
his hand clave unto the sword : and the Lord wrought 
a great victory that day; and the people returned 
after him only to spoil" (II Sam. 23:9, 10). 

Instances of a similar kind are recorded in his- 
tory, where there are also examples of sword-cramp 
like that from which the brave Eleazar suffered 
after his wonderful exploit. We are reminded of 
Ajax who beat down the Trojan leader with a rock 
which two ordinary men could scarcely lift; of 
Horatius defending the bridge against a whole army ; 
of Richard the lion-hearted who spurred along the 
whole Saracen line without finding an enemy to 
stand his assault, and of many others, of whom time 
and space forbid the mention. 

Next in order of the first three comes General 
Shammah. Of his mighty deeds we read: "And the 
Philistines were gathered together for foraging (see 
margin) where was a plot of ground full of lentils; 
and the people fled from the Philistines. But he 
stood in the midst of the plot, and defended it and 
slew the Philistines and the Lord wrought a great 
victory" (II Sam. 23:11, 12). 

Let us not overlook the significance of the last 
words of this record which are found also in verse 
ten. "Jehovah wrought a great victory." "If it 
had not been the Lord who was on our side, now 
may Israel say ; if it had not been the Lord who was 



THREE OF KING DAVID'S GENERALS 51 

on our side, when men rose up against us: then 
had they swallowed us up quick, when their wrath 
was kindled against us. . . . Blessed be the Lord, 
who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth" 
(Psalm 124:1-6). It may be wise to listen to 
Cowper just at this time: 

" Hast thou not learned what thou art often told, 
A truth still sacred, and believed of old, 
That no success attends on spears and swords 
Unblest, and that the battle is the Lord's?" 

The incident just recorded is all we know of 
Shammah, but it is enough to put him into the list 
of immortals. The scene is described in a few 
strokes of the pen by the historian. There is a com- 
mon piece of ground outside one of the towns of 
Israel, a piece of ground cultivated by the people. 
Just now it is covered with a fine crop of lentils. 
Suddenly ^here is a cry, "The Philistines! the 
Philistines!" A troop of them are out foraging, 
and they have crept along the bed of a dry water- 
course, thinking the field of lentils fair prey. With 
a rush and a shout they break cover. Down go the 
spades! Away scuttle the frightened Israelites — 
anywhere to escape from the cruel Philistines. All 
fly but one. 

There is one man who stands his ground. No 
troop of Philistines will make him run. He has no 
sword, but he seizes his mattock and all round that 
plot of lentils when he has finished using that mat- 
tock is a ghastly ring of slain Philistines. The way 
Shammah 's spade swung round his head that day 
was marvellous. He seemed to be everywhere at 
once. No braver stand in Israel had been made since 
the day when Samson slew a whole heap of Philis- 
tines with the jawbone of an ass. Well did Sham- 



52 GUARDING THE OUTPOSTS 

mah deserve to be promoted, and to receive from his 
King the rank of Major General. 

What a lesson there is in this story! Shammah 
plus Jehovah spells victory. Some young man is 
reading this who has perhaps fallen a prey to the 
Philistines. Like hundreds of others, you have gone 
down before those malignant allies of the pit — the 
world, the flesh and the devil. You have been de- 
feated so often, and so frequently put to shame in 
spite of your good resolves, that the very cry: 
"The Philistines! the Philistines!" fills you with 
panic, and you fall a victim to their assaults with- 
out striking a single blow. 

Are you for ever going to be trodden under foot 
by the enemy? Is it not time you learnt the mean- 
ing of that verse: "The God of peace shall bruise 
Satan under your feet?" Yielded to Jesus Christ, 
whose victory over Satan was absolute, you will find 
that His victories become yours. Instead of flying 
from the enemy; instead of yielding to the cruel 
oppressor, and giving him the opportunity of 
forging another link in the chain that binds you in 
degenerating captivity, try the method of Shammah. 
Eesist the onset that has hitherto swept you off your 
feet, and then see what will happen? This is what 
will happen : ' ' Resist the devil, and he will flee from 
you." Call upon Jesus Christ, and tell Him you 
would rather die than run ; that you would rather die 
than yield, and you will soon see who will do the 
running. The devil will flee from you. 

Does Satan whisper: "It is too late now to re- 
trieve that past!" Thank God it is not too late. 
I look into the faces of the young men I meet, and 
how many tell the sad story of dissipation. How 
many of those faces have written upon them in let- 
ters of fire: "Overborne!" "Overcome!" "De- 



THREE OF KING DAVID'S GENERALS 53 

feated!" "Dispirited!" The Philistines have been 
out on their foraging expeditions, as in the days of 
Shammah, — they are always out on this errand, — 
and there does not seem much left in many a life 
of manliness and purity and nobility and chivalry. 
Courage, brother, though the outlook be dark as 
night. Stand up in the middle of the wreck, like 
Shammah did, and you will soon be tasting the 
sweets of victory. And the years that have been 
devoured by the locust God will restore. 

One who had been overcome again and again by a 
besetting sin heard a message when bowed one day 
in shame and contrition before God because of 
another defeat; and the message was this: "The 
Egyptians whom you have seen to-day, you shall see 
again no more for ever." That Christian soldier 
believed the word, and thanked God for it. The 
vision became a glorious reality, and the name of 
that victor stands high on the roll of God's valiant 
ones to-day. Where will your name stand? 



VII 

THE FIGHT FOR MANSOUL 

OUR Lord's teaching about Satan is exceed- 
ingly important in view of the heresy which 
is being so widely propagated, even in some 
of the great universities of this land, that the devil 
is simply a principle of evil, a malign influence, and 
that as a real person he does not exist. The devil 
can achieve no greater triumph than to innoculate 
men and women with the notion that he is non- 
existent. 

Personality, with all its attendant attributes, is 
ascribed in the Scriptures both to Satan and to that 
innumerable army of demons who do his bidding. 
It is ascribed to them just as unmistakably as to 
men or as to God Himself. The wickedness of any 
other method of interpretation is that it destroys the 
truth and honesty of God's Word. What, for ex- 
ample, can be plainer than these words of our Lord 's : 
"Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of 
your father it is your will to do. He was a murderer 
from the beginning, and stood not in the truth, be- 
cause there is no truth in him. When he speaketh 
a lie, he speaketh of his own : for he is a liar and the 
father thereof" (John 8:44). These words ought 
to settle beyond all controversy the question of 
Satan's personality. Jesus says he is a sinner from 
the beginning ; he is an homicide from the beginning ; 
he is an arch-liar, and a renegade for "he abode not 
in the truth." 

54 



TEE FIGHT FOR MAN SOUL 55 

It has often been said that the great doctrine of 
the Atonement runs like a scarlet thread through the 
Word of God, from Genesis to Revelations. It is 
equally true that there is a black thread running 
throughout the Book. You can trace the slimy trail 
of the Serpent from the opening words of the third 
chapter of Genesis: "Now the serpent was more' 
subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord 
God had made." You can follow it on and on for 
thousands of years, until it is lost in one of the clos- 
ing chapters of the Revelation in the welcome words : 
"And the devil that deceived them was cast into the 
lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the 
false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and 
night for ever and ever" (Rev. 20:10). 

As God and the agencies He has at His disposal, 
by a thousand means and ministries, seek man's 
salvation, so Satan and his agents in ways that are 
diabolical in their cunning and subtlety, seek man's 
ruin and destruction. God is perpetually working 
for order and separation, Satan is perpetually work- 
ing for disorder and confusion. It is simply through 
his agency that the Church to-day, instead of being 
absolutely separate from the World, is nothing but a 
mixed multitude. Instead of being the chaste virgin, 
the Bride of Christ is seen flirting with the same 
World that put Jesus to death, for because the 
World 's character is unchanged and unchanging, she 
would do so again to-morrow if she had the oppor- 
tunity. 

What a stupendous conflict is taking place around 
us ! Here is an arena where the forces of darkness 
and light are engaged in the fiercest battling, not 
for empires but for souls; and weighed in the bal- 
ances of God, empires are but as the small dust of 
the balance compared to souls. 



56 GUARDING THE OUTPOSTS 

Our Lord gives us a picture of this conflict in the 
following words: "Whenever a strong man, fully- 
armed and equipped, is guarding his own castle, he 
enjoys peaceful possession of his property; but as 
soon as another stronger than he attacks him and 
overcomes him, he takes away that complete armour 
of his in which he trusted, and distributes the 
plunder he has collected. Whoever is not with Me 
is against Me, and whoever is not gathering with 
Me is scattering abroad" (Luke 11:21-23, Wey- 
mouth's translation). 

1. The first picture is Mansoul possessed by Satan 
and in peace. 

Note that our Lord never underestimates the 
power of Satan. He speaks of him in this passage 
as "a strong man, fully armed and equipped." 
There is no surer way to suffer an ignominious de- 
feat than to underestimate the strength and skill of 
the enemy. The people of Great Britain laughed at 
the Boer farmers at the outbreak of the South 
African War, but when the brave British soldiers bit 
the dust again and again, the laughter ceased, and 
they learned to respect the skill and prowess of their 
foe. 

The devil loves to hear men laughing and joking 
about him. Only let them take liberties with him, 
and treat him as a huge joke, and before very long 
they will have abundant cause to repent of their 
folly. Satan, with his six thousand years' experi- 
ence in the art of seducing and destroying men, is 
an adversary not to be despised or trifled with. 

Our Lord pictures him in the passage "guarding 
his own castle, and in peaceful possession of his 
property." He enjoys undisturbed possession. He 
is as much at home as you are in your own house. 



TEE FIGHT FOB MAXSOUL 57 

You put your key in the lock and the door opens to 
you, and when you have closed it none can have 
entrance without your consent. You go to and fro 
in its apartments, furnishing them as suits your 
taste and convenience. It is your house and you do 
what you like with it. 

The unsaved man is, in the same way, Satan's own 
castle, and he enjoys peaceful possession of his prop- 
erty. He just as truly incarnates himself in a man 's 
nature as the Holy Spirit does; and every man is 
either the castle of Satan, or the temple of the Holy 
Spirit. Satan is described by the Apostle Paul as 
"the spirit that now worketh in the children of dis- 
obedience." Unsaved men are children of disobedi- 
ence, because refusing to obey God, the wrath of God 
is come upon them, and as the Apostle says in an- 
other place, they are "carried away captive by the 
devil at his will" (II Tim. 2:26). That is a cap- 
tivity a thousand times worse than Egyptian 
bondage. The soul is in captivity, and it is bound 
in fetters which none can break but the Stronger 
than the strong man. Satan leads his victims on, 
step by step, binding tighter and ever tighter the 
cords of destruction, his one object being to make 
his captives sharers of his doom in that abode of 
darkness and agony, prepared, not for man, but 
1 ' prepared for the devil and his angels. ' ' 

Everything in the castle is quiet when the strong 
man is thus in peaceful possession of his property. 
Nothing is more dreaded by Satan than a disturb- 
ance of that false security, that counterfeit peace. 
All he desires is that his captives shall be led quietly 
to their doom ; careless as to their immortal destiny ; 
blind to the redemption that has been provided at 
so great a cost; and unconcerned as to their inevi- 
table banishment from God and from the glory of 



58 GUARDING THE OUTPOSTS 

His power. So he uses the armour with which he is 
equipped to this end. 

''Peace!" he cries, when the bell of Conscience 
rings under some awakening providence. "Peace! 
you are as good as others, and far better than 
many." "Peace!" he whispers, when the claims of 
Jesus Christ are presented; "if you must be re- 
ligious, be satisfied with the form of godliness, and 
don't go to any extremes." "Peace!" he says, when 
a comrade falls at your side altogether unprepared 
for death; "you have a long time to live; enjoy 
life while you may; attend to serious things to- 
morrow!" And so the poor soul is lulled to sleep, 
until there comes that awful awakening, when "all 
unfurnished for the world to come," the lost soul 
sinks into perdition, and enters that dread abode of 
the lost, over whose portals is inscribed, "All hope 
abandon ye who enter here!" 

2. The second picture is Mansoul in a state of siege. 

A Stronger than he attacks the strong man fully 
armed and equipped. The castle has now passed 
from a state of peace to a state of war. It is no 
longer in a condition of false security. The shock 
of battle is felt. The Strong Son of God, to whom 
the castle belongs by the purchase-price of His own 
blood, lays siege to the castle, now by ordinary, and 
now by extraordinary methods. The Holy Spirit 
directs the powerful siege guns of the Gospel which 
thunder at the walls, and tear up the foundations of 
the soul 's false confidence. Now He is in possession 
of the bridge-head, and then, seeing that further 
resistance is useless, Satan is compelled to retire, 
and Emmanuel takes possession of His own. 

Sometimes in a few moments all the strongholds 
and entrenchments that Satanic ingenuity has so 



THE FIGHT FOB MAN SOUL 59 

carefully erected are destroyed. I know one who 
was riding to the race-course, when at the entrance, 
a little tract was put into his hand with this ques- 
tion printed at the top as a title, "Where will you 
spend Eternity?" That question broke up all the 
devil's positions in a moment; and riding back 
swiftly to his home, and handing his horse to the 
groom, that young man decided on his face before 
God, that he would spend Eternity in the realms of 
bliss and in the company of the redeemed. He has 
been for many years one of the foremost preachers in 
London, and has led thousands into a saving ac- 
quaintance with Jesus Christ. 

Is this conflict going on in your heart at this mo- 
ment? Beseech the Stronger than the strong not to 
leave you to the power of your cruel adversary. And 
while hell is moved from beneath at the conflict; 
while angels look on with deepest interest and pro- 
foundest sympathy; while tens of thousands of 
prayers ascend to the throne of grace on your behalf, 
let the castle be surrendered. Run up the white flag 
of submission, and all the bells of heaven will be set 
a- ringing, for "there is joy in the presence of the 
angels of God over one sinner that repenteth." 

3. The third picture is Mansoul conquered and pos- 
sessed. 

As soon as another, Stronger than Satan, attacks 
him and overcomes him, "He takes away that com- 
plete armour of his in which he trusted, and dis- 
tributes the plunder he has collected." The vic- 
tory is won. The black flag of rebellion has been 
hauled down, and the crimson standard of the 
Cross flies in its place. All Satan's armour is taken 
from him, and, as Emmanuel enters the castle in 
triumph, He divides the spoil. The lips that once 



60 GUARDING THE OUTPOSTS 

blasphemed now sing Emmanuel's praise; the feet 
that were swift to do evil, now ran on the King's 
errands; the hands that were denied with sin, are 
now holy hands, lifted up in earnest intercession 
or outstretched in loving ministry ; the chambers of 
imagery are purified and new pictures are hung upon 
the walls; the windows and observatories, darkened 
by sin, are cleansed, and reveal visions which uncir- 
cumcised eyes never saw; the sociable and winsome 
disposition — once Satan's favourite weapon — is now 
used to win men to God. All the armour in which 
Satan trusted, and which he employed for his hellish 
purposes is taken from him, and the government 
of the castle is now in the hands and upon the 
shoulders of Jesus. 

When Mansoul had to be surrendered to Em- 
manuel, according to John Bunyan in the Holy 
War, Diabolus sent his ambassador with this among 
other suggestions at compromise: " Behold, sir, the 
•condescension of my master! He says he will be 
content if he may but have a place assigned to him 
in Mansoul, as a place to live in privately, and you 
shall be lord of all the rest." Then answered Em- 
manuel: "All that the Father giveth Me shall come 
to Me ; and of all that He giveth Me I will lose noth- 
ing ; no not a hoof nor a hair. I will not therefore 
grant him, no, not the least corner in Mansoul, to 
dwell in, I will have it all to Myself." Blessed be 
His name that He so determines! 

The part we have to play in this fight for Man- 
soul is suggested by the closing words of the re- 
markable passage we have been considering. "He 
that is not with Me is against Me." You can be in 
confederacy with Satan or with Emmanuel. You 
can refuse to surrender the castle to Him, who 
bought the right to cleanse and possess it with His 



THE FIGHT FOR MAN SOUL 61 

own precious blood ; or you can say as you make an 
unreserved submission : 

" Through grace I hearken to Thy voice, 
Yield to be saved from sin; 
In sure and certain hope rejoice, 
That Thou wilt enter in." 



"Men don't believe in a Devil now, as their fathers used 

to do; 
They've forced the door of the broadest creed to let his 

majesty through: 
There isn't a print of his cloven foot, or a fiery dart from 

his bow 
To be found in the earth or air to-day, for the world has 

voted so. 
But who is it mixing the fatal draught that palsies heart 

and brain. 
And loads the bier of each passing year with ten hundred 

thousand slain? 
Who blights the bloom of the land to-day with the fiery 

breath of hell, 
If the Devil isn't and never was? Won't somebody rise 

and tell? 
Who dogs the steps of the toiling saint, and digs the pit 

for his feet? 
Who sows the tares in the field of Time wherever God 

sows the wheat? 
The Devil is voted not to be, and, of course, the thing is 

true; 
But who is doing the kind of work the Devil alone should 

do? 
Won't someone step to the front forthwith, and make 

their bow and show 
How the frauds and crimes of a single day spring up? 

We want to know. 
The Devil is fairly voted out, and of course the Devil's 

gone, 
But simple people would like to know who carries his 

business on." 



VIII 
GUARDING THE OUTPOSTS 

NO small part of military success depends on 
the care taken of the outposts. There is noth- 
ing of the magnificence of the crowded camp 
about them. Each outpost is occupied by a few 
soldiers at the most, often by a single sentinel. It 
may seem a very trifling business to do nothing but 
to watch, and to send an occasional report to head- 
quarters. The romance of war in an open country 
is associated with the thunder of great guns, the 
sharp rattle of musketry, the ringing sound of the 
trumpet, the drawing up in battle-array of armies, 
the waving banners, the rush of cavalry, the deadly 
assault, the smoke of conflict, the shout of them that 
strive for the mastery, the huzza of victory. 

How unlike all this is the still life at a distant out- 
post ! There is no romance in mere vigilance. Pas- 
sion is stirred by attack. A soldier feels that he is 
part of a host, and himself an element of power 
^when marching in the ranks of the main army ; but 
there is little to stir enthusiasm in being sent away 
into the woods, or to distant hills to watch for what 
may never appear; to guard what may never be 
attacked. Just as though the enemy would trouble 
himself about insignificant outposts, when there is a 
central camp to be assaulted. 

But who that is at all familiar with warfare does 
not know that danger begins at the outposts ? These 
must be passed before the camp can be reached, and 

62 



GUARDING THE OUTPOSTS 63 

if the enemy meditates a surprise, nothing can pre- 
vent it but the vigilance of the distant sentries. They 
have the honour and responsibility of being nearest 
the foe. Many an army has been lost by the neglect 
of the commander to take sufficient precautions 
against a sudden night-attack. Many a city has 
been captured through the absence of even a single 
sentry from his beat. The rules of war are severe on 
this point. One man must not be allowed to endan- 
ger an army. This was one of the military regula- 
tions to which Napoleon the Great gave personal 
attention, frequently going the rounds in the dark- 
ness to see that all the outposts were well guarded, 
and death was the penalty of a sentinel found asleep 
at his post. 

All these facts have their counterpart in the 
spiritual conflict. The danger usually begins at the 
outposts. There the enemy first shows himself, and 
many a citadel has been taken because there has been 
carelessness, a relaxing of the necessary vigilance at 
the outposts. 

The thoughts are among the most important of 
the outposts in our spiritual life. "Asa man think- 
eth in his heart so is he, ' ' says the Word of God. All 
activity is the result of thought. Everything you do 
in any relationship of life is the direct outcome of 
some underlying thought. Put it like this: At the 
back of all activity is reason; behind every choice 
that man makes there is an impelling cause; that 
impelling cause is a thought. I watch what you 
do. I cannot watch what you think, but I know 
what you think from what you do. 

You stand in the streets of a city. Here is a man 
who crosses from one side of the road to the other. 
Before he crossed he thought of crossing, and you 
know his prior thought by that action. Yonder is a 



64 GUARDING THE OUTPOSTS 

man who is arrested by a sensational placard of a 
play at the theatre. He thought before he decided 
to stop and read it. The principle applies in all 
realms of human activity. What you think is mani- 
fest in what you do. "As a man thinketh in his 
heart so is he." 

Dr. J. H. Jowett puts it thus: "A man's thoughts 
determine the moral climate of his life, and will 
settle the question whether his conduct is to be a 
poisonous marsh or a fertile meadow, a fragrant 
garden or a stretch of barren sand. The pose of the 
mind determines the disposition, and will settle 
whether a man shall soar with the angels in the 
heavenlies, or wallow with the sow in the mire." 

The sin does not consist in the mere act; it lies 
back of the action, in the thought, the intention, the 
motive that inspired it. You sinned in thought first 
and then you sinned in deed. In that black cata- 
logue of sins in Matthew 15 : 19 Jesus puts evil 
thoughts first in the list, and says : * ' Out of the heart 
proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornica- 
tions, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are 
the things which defile a man." That is the true 
generation of crime. Thoughts are the parent of 
deeds; good thoughts of good deeds and bad 
thoughts of bad deeds. 

The real difference between a good man and a bad 
man is this — the one fosters and cherishes the 
thought of evil; the other repudiates and repels it. 
During the Revolutionary War the same tempta- 
tion was offered to two men, Eeed and Benedict 
Arnold. Reed said: "I am a poor man, but no 
king is rich enough to buy me." Benedict Arnold 
clutched the gold, and his name drifts down through 
American history, an object of obloquy and con- 
tempt. The difference is here, the one was hospitable 



GUARDING THE OUTPOSTS 65 

to a bad thought and the hospitality he gave to it 
rained him. The other refused to entertain it, and 
said to the damnable proposal, ' ' Keep out V 9 ' 

Many a man would start with horror from a 
full-grown sin, and say with Hazael: "Is thy serv- 
ant a dog that he should do this thing?" But he 
nurses and dandles the infant sin in his heart in the 
form of a bad thought, and like Hazael he does it. 
The sensualist is only a filthy thinker; the miser is 
only a covetous and grasping thinker; the glutton 
is only a greedy thinker. Tell me what your soul 
turns to, and thinks about when left alone, and I 
will determine your spiritual character, for "as a 
man thinketh in his heart so is he." 

All good and evil commences at the outposts of the 
thoughts. Relax your vigilance at the outposts, 
suffer the evil thoughts to pass unchallenged, and 
you have taken the first step to the ruin of your char- 
acter. Let me tell you of one of the tragedies of 
nature. There is a certain fly that lives in a very 
ingenious manner. Some rude instinct impels it to 
make provision for its progeny in this way : When it 
wishes to lay its eggs it pierces the soft body of a 
certain caterpillar and deposits them there. Ap- 
parently this action causes the caterpillar no dis- 
comfort. But soon the warm body of the grub 
hatches the eggs, and then the doom of the cater- 
pillar is sealed, for the wretched lodgers, awakened 
to life, at once commence to feed upon the body of 
their benefactor, and continue doing so until life 
is extinct. Many a man who has given hospitality to 
evil thoughts has found in after years that, like these 
horrible parasites, they have fed upon his best nature 
and ruined it. 

A few practical suggestions may be useful. 



66 GUARDING THE OUTPOSTS 

1. Remember that you control the material of 
your thoughts. 

There is a common idea cherished that suggestions 
and thoughts are absolutely put into our mind by 
God or Satan, and some find this an easy way of 
accounting for the good and bad thoughts that pos- 
sess them. It is more convenient to cast the respon- 
sibility elsewhere than to admit that no one is to 
blame but ourselves. 

Thought is really the comparison, selection and 
association of the actual contents of our minds, 
under the guidance of our will. All that has im- 
pressed us by the eyes, the ears, the feelings has 
passed into our mental treasury. It is all there, and 
it is all linked together by the subtlest and strangest 
connections. You are adding to that treasury every 
day by your reading, and by all the other uses you 
make of eyes and ears. What we call thinking, 
is simply taking from that treasury what you will 
of its contents, and arranging them to form new 
ideas and purposes. With what stores are you en- 
riching that treasury? Your life is so far in your 
own hands that you can provide the material for 
your thoughts. 

Put yourself in association with things that are 
pure and good, cherish holy thoughts and aspira- 
tions, and you will become pure and good. Read 
unclean books, indulge in stories that are suggestive 
of filth, engage in impure conversation, and you fill 
your treasury with corruption, a corruption that will 
sooner or later blossom into action, and poison your 
life. Do not imagine for a moment that you are 
innocent if you love to meditate upon anything 
which you would blush to avow before men, or fear 
to unveil before God. Remember that what is in- 
side, in the way of settled, persistent thought will 



GUARDING THE OUTPOSTS 67 

be sure to be reproduced in the outward life. There- 
fore, ' ' Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things 
are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever 
things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, what- 
soever things are of good report; if there be any 
virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these 
things" (Phil. 4:8). 

2. Remember that character originates in thought. 
All character originates in thought. Was it not 

Butler who said: "Sow the act and you reap the 
habit; sow the habit and you reap the character; 
sow the character and you reap the destiny"? But 
as we have seen there is something farther back than 
the act in the outpost of the thoughts, so that we may 
add, "Sow the thought and you reap the act." 
Your thoughts not only reveal what you are, they 
make you what you are. Nothing seems less sub- 
stantial, yet nothing is of greater consequence, for 
your thought-life is the factory where character is 
manufactured. The face is like the dial face of the 
watch, it tells you of what is going on within. You 
can read character in the countenance. Those coarse, 
foul thoughts make a sensual, repulsive face. Holy 
thoughts will make the face shine like the face of an 
angel, because the cultivation of holy thoughts in- 
evitably produces a holy character. Tell me what 
your thought life is and I will tell you what kind of 
character you are building for eternity. 

3. Remember that you cannot think two thoughts at 

once. 
Many a young man is puzzled as to how to rid him- 
self of evil thoughts. You cannot will such thoughts 
out of your mind; a mere act of volition is not 
enough. The very effort to eject the intruder by the 



68 GUARDING THE OUTPOSTS 

action of the will only fastens it there more firmly. 
You can, however, displace it by another, for you 
cannot think two thoughts at once. The parable of 
the unclean spirit is very suggestive. The man out 
of whom the evil spirit went, neglected to fill up the 
empty, swept and garnished spaces with good spirits 
so that there was room for the returning evil, and in 
sevenfold worse forms than before. You have this 
measure of control over the outposts that you may 
garrison them with thoughts that are pure and good ; 
you can hang on the chambers of your imagination 
pictures that elevate and inspire to higher and 
nobler achievement, or you can hang there pictures 
that will blight and blast your life. 

Some men are so mentally impoverished that when 
they reach out for some great thought to displace an 
intruder from hell, they cannot find it. Time that 
might have been spent in enriching the mind and 
furnishing the treasury with good thoughts has 
been idled away in gossip and frivolity. ' ' Thy Word 
have I hid in my heart,'' says the Psalmist, "that 
I might not sin against Thee." The Word of God 
packed away in the heart, day by day, will furnish 
you with ammunition for the day of battle ; for the 
mightiest weapon in this fight for the outposts is the 
sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God. 



IX 



1 'PURE AND CLEAN, THROUGH AND 
THROUGH" 

" Let it be your pride, therefore, to show all men 
everywhere, not only what good soldiers you are, 
but also what good men you are, keeping your- 
selves fit and straight in everything, and pure and 
clean through and through." — President Wilson's 
Message to the Soldiers of the National Army. 

THOUSANDS of Christian people have thanked 
God for this ringing challenge from the Presi- 
dent to our soldiers to live a clean life, for no 
more subtle and powerful temptations beset our boys 
than those to lower this standard, and so to become a 
reproach instead of a pride. My purpose is to show 
how the splendid ideal of the message at the head of 
the chapter may become real ; how these possibilities 
may become actualities in the experience of every 
man who will take as much pains to observe the 
directions of God's Word as he does to observe the 
directions of his instructors in military strategy. 

If I were asked to preach a sermon on the subject 
of this chapter — "Pure and clean, through and 
through" — I should turn first to the Book of 
Proverbs, for in chapter 4, verse 23, I find these 
words: "Keep thy heart with all diligence for out 
of it are the issues of life. " It is as if the inspired 
teacher said: "Guard your money, your property, 
your health, your body, everything in which you 
have a legitimate interest, or which is advantageous 
to your welfare, bat before and above everything 

69 



70 GUARDING THE OUTPOSTS 

else, keep a guard on your heart." The word "for" 
introduces the reason, "for out of it are the issues 
of life." 

That is to say, the moral conduct of life, its actions 
and proceedings are all determined by the condition 
of the heart. If the heart is "pure and clean 
through and through/' the life will be pure and 
clean. If the heart is impure and corrupt, the life 
will be impure and corrupt. The heart is here com- 
pared to a fountain, and if the streams are to be 
pure so must be the fountain. No one expects sweet 
and pure water from a bitter and brackish fountain. 

Physically the heart is the central organ of the 
body. Just as from the heart the blood is propelled 
to every part of the body, keeping the red stream of 
life always moving, so, spiritually, out of that part 
of our nature which is called the "heart" the 
' ' issues, ' ' the Sowings or streams of life proceed. 

The Old Testament locates the heart in the centre 
of the personal being. It is not merely the home of 
the affections, it is also the throne of the intellect 
and the seat of the will, or the moral purpose. The 
issues of life flow from it in all their multitudinous 
forms. The stream parts into many heads, but it has 
one fountain. It avails little to plant watchers on 
the stream half-way to the sea. If control is to be 
effectual it must be exercised at the source. That 
is a commonplace of all wholesome teaching since the 
beginning of the world. 

The Scriptural conception of the heart is that it is 
the centre where three things are perpetually being 
focussed; the mind or the intellectual powers; the 
emotions or the affectional powers; the will or the 
volitional powers. What you think about, what you 
delight in, what you purpose. You are what you are 
in these three things ; mind, desires and will. 



" PURE AND CLEAN " 71 

A cleansed heart simply means the purification 
of the stream of your thoughts ; the cleansing of your 
desires, and the adjustment of your will. To be 
''clean and pure through and through" means, 
therefore, to have a cleansed mind, cleansed desires 
and a cleansed or loyal will. 

How can this purity, without which all challenges 
to a clean life are utterly in vain, be obtained ? 

Jesus Christ is exactly to you what your faith 
takes Him to be. The law of the spiritual life always 
is "According to your faith be it unto you." One 
of the familiar words in the literature of to-day is, 
"Attain !" "Attain!" "Attain!" I would sub- 
stitute another word, "Obtain!" for nothing in the 
kingdom of grace is first of all by attainment but by 
obtainment. The only one who ever attained to a 
righteous life was Jesus Christ; and we obtain His 
righteousness by faith. The only one who ever at- 
tained to holiness was Jesus Christ, and we obtain 
His holiness by faith. In one sentence, His attain- 
ments were all for us, and become our obtainments 
by faith. One of the greatest passages in the New 
Testament is this: "But of Him are ye in Christ 
Jesus, who of God is made unto us a Wisdom con- 
sisting of Righteousness and Sanctification and Re- 
demption" (I Cor. 1:30). Wisdom is the casket, 
and in the casket are these three precious jewels, 
Righteousness, Sanctification, Redemption. All are 
to be had for the claiming. How strange that we 
should be content with so little when we might have 
so much! 

I have read of a German prince who once gave to 
his betrothed, on the eve of their marriage, an iron 
egg. In her disgust at such a gift she threw it on 
the ground. In contact with the ground a spring 
was released and the egg flew open, revealing a sil- 



72 GUARDING THE OUTPOSTS 

ver lining. She picked it up, and found another 
spring which revealed a golden yolk. Still another 
surprise awaited the no longer indignant but curious 
princess. In the golden yolk she detected a tiny 
spring which brought to light a priceless diamond 
ring. Wisdom is the iron egg. The silver lining is 
Righteousness, the golden yoke is Sanctification 
and the diamond ring is Redemption, for Redemp- 
tion embraces Christ's whole work, from our rescue 
from sin to our final glorification. 

Endeavour to grasp the meaning of this great 
Scripture: "If we confess our sins, He is faithful 
and just (righteous) to forgive our sins, and to 
cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (I John 1:9). 

God has made ample provision for the complete 
and glorious pardon of all your sins, and until this 
word of pardon is spoken to your heart it is vain to 
expect peace or purity. 

What a wonderful pardon it is! "According to 
the height of the heavens above the earth, so great 
is His mercy towards them that fear Him" (Ps. 
103:11 margin). "According to the height of 
the heavens above the earth" — you cannot measure 
that distance; no astronomer can do it. The as- 
tronomer can tell you, for example, how distant the 
sun is from the earth. Sir Robert Ball tells us that 
the actual distance of the sun from the earth is about 
92,700,000 miles. We are talking much in these days 
about millions and billions. Ninety-two millions is 
a very large number. It would be necessary to 
count as quickly as possible for three days and three 
nights before one million was completed; and you 
would have to repeat this nearly ninety-three times 
before you had counted all the miles between the 
earth and the sun. 

But when you have travelled from the earth to 



" PURE AND CLEAN " 73 

the sun, if such a journey were possible, you have 
not reached the height of the heavens. No matter 
how far you could go there are worlds and heights 
and distances that are simply immeasurable by any 
calculation of ours, and God says : ' ' According to the 
height of the heavens above the earth so great is His 
mercy towards those that fear Him. ' ' Well may the 
poet exclaim, ' ' Who is a pardoning God like Thee ? ' ' 
Every man knows that he needs more than pardon. 
Pardon alone will not make a man ' ' pure and clean, 
through and through." He needs cleansing also, 
and cleansing means more and goes further than par- 
don or forgiveness. God has made as large and as 
full and as adequate provision for our cleansing from 
all unrighteousness as for the pardon of our sins. 
Cleansing means more and goes deeper. Forgive- 
ness is something which takes place in God's heart; 
cleansing is something which takes place in mine. 
Forgiveness deals with the acts of transgression, 
and the guilt that is incurred thereby; cleansing 
deals with the inward dispositions from which the 
outward acts spring. Forgiveness deals with the 
punishment of sin; cleansing deals with its defile- 
ment and domination. Forgiveness restores me to 
a right relation to God; cleansing fits me for com- 
munion with Him. 

Never forget that the cleansing is as complete as 
the pardon; that it rests upon the same foundation 
as pardon, and is therefore just as certain, and that 
whoever puts cleansing in doubt, puts pardon in 
doubt also. 

What are the conditions upon which this pardon 
and purity may be yours? There are two, Confes- 
sion and Faith. "If we confess our sins He is faith- 
ful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to 
cleanse us from all unrighteousness." That does 



74 GUARDING THE OUTPOSTS 

not mean a hasty confession, a partial confession, an 
apologetic confession, a hesitating confession. It 
means a frank and full confession, like David's in 
the fifty-first Psalm. 

The greatest living theologian, Professor James 
Denny, D.D., says: "There is power in the blood of 
Jesus to cleanse us from all sin, and there is no 
power to cleanse us anywhere else, but it needs the 
condition of openness and sincerity. We cannot be 
cleansed from the sin we do not confess. We cannot 
be cleansed from the sin we excuse. We cannot 
be cleansed from the sin to which we are secretly re- 
solved to cling. There is no such thing as negotia- 
tion, transaction or compromise possible in the rela- 
tions of God and man. Everything is absolute. We 
may take the Gospel or leave it, but we cannot bar- 
gain about it. We may be cleansed from all sin, or 
from none, but not from some on condition of retain- 
ing others. Renounce with all your heart every- 
thing secret and insincere. Let there be nothing 
hidden in your life, no unavowed ends, no prevarica- 
tions, no reserves. Insincerity, the dark atmosphere 
in which so many souls live, is in its turn one of the 
forms of sin from which the blood of Christ cleanses ; 
and as we confess it, and disown it, and bring it to 
the cleansing blood, it also loses its power. This is 
the way in which all the wealth of the Gospel be- 
comes ours." Those are golden words and well 
worth pondering. 

After this frank, full, free confession, rest in the 
faithfulness of God. Have you been faithful in your 
confession? Infinitely more faithful is He in your 
forgiveness and cleansing. Do not look for feelings, 
and do not think of your faith, but let the faithful- 
ness of God fill the whole circle of your vision, until 
you grow blind to feelings, blind even to faith, blind 



" PURE AND CLEAN " 75 

to all but the loving faithfulness of a God who can- 
not break His Word without ceasing to be God. 

Without the slightest procrastination, hesitation or 
misgiving, take upon your lips that prayer of the 
penitent King, whose shameful story of sin is told 
in God 's Word in all its naked ugliness : ' ' Wash me 
thoroughly from my transgressions, and cleanse me 
from my sin. Create in me a clean heart, God, and 
renew a right spirit within me. Wash me and I 
shall be whiter than snow." As in his case so in 
yours, the prayer will be answered, and your tongue 
will sing aloud of His righteousness. 

" Lord, I lift that passionate prayer of old, 
My sins as scarlet are; my life, to Thee 
An open page, how deeply marred! yet bold 

I plead for cleansing. Jesus' blood shall free 
This soul of mine from shame, from guilt, from woe. 
O wash me, Lord, yes, whiter than the snow." 



THE SOLDIER'S DEILL BOOK 
No. 1. "Watch Ye!" 

AT the elose of Paul 's first letter to the Corin- 
thians (I Cor. 16: 13) there is an exhortation 
^ consisting of four short, impetuous, impera- 
tives, revealing a sudden outburst of emotion as the 
writer draws to a close. They ring sharp and clear 
like pistol-shots. They are like the word of com- 
mand shouted from an officer along the ranks, and 
there is a military metaphor running through them 
all. The associations of battle breathe in every 
word. 

As the enemy gathers in the distance, half hidden 
by the brow of a hill or beneath the shadow of the 
forest, and it remains doubtful for the moment at 
what quarter the storm will break, and the attack be 
made, the warning to vigilance rings out — "Watch 
ye!" 

As the foe advances, and the threatening masses 
roll onwards, as the strong columns of the enemy 
threaten to overwhelm the slender line of the de- 
fenders, the clear, strident voice of the officer is 
heard in the momentary hush of suspense, exhorting 
his men to steadiness and constancy — "Stand fast!" 

And when the battle is joined ; and like two angry 
tides, the opposing lines meet, clash and break, war- 
rior contending with warrior in hand-to-hand con- 

76 



THE SOLDIER'S DRILL BOOK NO. 1 11 

flict for the mastery, amid the shouting and the 
tumult, the same clear voice is heard calling — 
"Quit you like men!" 

Beneath the fury of the assault, the line of the 
defenders shakes and wavers. Now is the time for 
every man to strike a man's stroke, and to display 
the heroism that is ready to die, but is resolved 
never to yield. So the dauntless leader cries aloud 
to his brave warriors — "Be strong!" 

This page in the Soldier's Drill Book contains 
therefore these four stirring challenges, upon each 
of which we propose to dwell. The first is a call to 
vigilance, ' ' Watch ye ! " or as Dr. Weymouth trans- 
lates it: "Be on the alert!" 

Patrick Henry's axiom ought to be in the memory 
of every soldier: "Eternal vigilance is the price of 
safety." "Watch ye!" The figure is undoubtedly 
a military one. No matter what massive walls, or 
what carefully concealed guns guard yonder fortress 
something more is necessary. And so up and down 
those ramparts, by day and by night, paces the sen- 
tinel, ready to give the alarm at the first sign of 
approaching danger, that the troops within the 
fortress may be warned, and put themselves in 
readiness to receive an atack. 

If you have ever visited the Heights of Abraham 
in Quebec, and looked down on those precipitous 
cliffs which make it the strongest natural citadel in 
Canada, you cannot but feel amazed that General 
Wolfe and a little company of English soldiers were 
able to capture it with comparative ease. "It would 
seem, ' ' said a visitor to a guardsman, "as if a band 
of schoolboys might have held this fort against an 
army. How did it happen that the French were 
defeated?" "Oh," he replied, "the soldiers got 
careless about the watch, they were overconfident 



78 GUARDING THE OUTPOSTS 

and pleasure-loving, and when, one dark night, they 
were off guard, the citadel was taken.' ' 

That is the story of many a disaster. We forget 
that the enemy of our souls never sleeps, and that 
when we are most off guard he is most on the 
watch. It was just at this point that Peter failed. 
You remember how self-confident he was, and the 
Master, who knew the unguarded place in Peter's 
character, used once again as He passed into the 
shadows of the Garden of Gethsemane the word He 
had so often used: "Watch!" "Watch and pray, 
that ye enter not into temptation. " ' ' Watch, ' ' that is 
your responsibility. "Pray that ye enter not into 
temptation"; that is the way you may avail your- 
self of your resources. But instead of watching Peter 
slept; and something happened which he believed 
never could under any circumstances have happened. 
It might happen to others but never to him ; but the 
citadel was taken, and, with oaths and curses, Peter 
denied that he ever knew Jesus at all. Then the 
cock crew and Peter remembered his Lord's warn- 
ing words and went out and wept bitterly. No won- 
der, when he writes his letter, he says: "Be sober, 
be vigilant!" 

These words "Watch ye!" have been written in 
letters of fire on the signal-posts of life by the hand 
of God. ' ' Watch " ; " Watch unto prayer " ; " Watch, 
for ye know not the day or the hour"; "What I say 
unto you I say unto all, Watch!" "Watch, for 
ye know not when the time is ! " 

Vigilance — which is watchfulness combined with 
alertness — is the price of everything good and great 
in earth and heaven. It seems as though there was 
no word so far-reaching as the word, "Watch." It 
was for his faithful vigilance that the sentinel at 
Pompeii is embalmed in poetry and recorded in his- 



THE SOLDIER'S DRILL BOOK NO. 1 79 

tory. On that fatal day on which Vesuvius, at whose 
feet the city stood, burst out into a fiery eruption 
that shook the earth, a sentinel kept watch by the 
gate which looked towards the burning mountain. 

Amidst the dreadful disorder and panic which 
ensued, the sentinel was forgotten, and as Rome re- 
quired her sentinels, happen what might, to hold 
their posts till released by the guard, or set at liberty 
by their officer, the Pompeian sentinel had to choose 
between death and dishonour. He chose death. 

Slowly but surely the ashes rise on his manly 
form, now they reach his breast, and now covering his 
lips they choke his breathing. He was ' ' faithful unto 
death, ' ' and after seventeen centuries they found his 
skeleton, standing erect in a marble niche, clad in its 
rusty armour, the helmet on his empty skull, and his 
bony fingers still closed upon his spear. 

I have referred to the necessity of alertness. It is 
that state of attention to duty and to danger which 
we familiarly speak of as "wide awake"; a state in 
which we are keenly alive to every duty, and quick to 
detect the most subtle assaults of the enemy. Such 
is the vigilance required when an army is on the 
march or resting in camp. Advanced guards are 
thrown out. The picket line is established by day 
and by night. So vigilant must the sentries be, that 
becoming accustomed to the darkness, they can de- 
tect the movement of an advancing foe even in the 
darkest night. 

I remember reading an incident when the United 
States soldiers were in conflict with the Indians. 
Night after night the sentry at a certain post was 
shot, and no one could explain how the tragedy hap- 
pened. The report of a gun was heard, a sentry lay 
dead at his post, but no foe was ever seen. One 
night, with his senses all quickened by what had 



80 GUARDING THE OUTPOSTS 

happened to his comrade at that post, the sentry saw 
what seemed to be a bear moving towards the camp 
from the brushwood. The movements of the animal 
were so erratic that the sentry took aim and killed 
what he thought was a bear, but which proved to be 
an Indian disguised in a bear-skin. 

The enemy will come upon you in all sorts of dis- 
guises. He comes sometimes, as Paul tells us, as an 
angel of light, and deceives even experienced soldiers. 
"We are placed here to be trained and developed for 
larger and nobler service by exposure to the forces of 
evil. If we were so sheltered from evil that there 
would be no need for constant watchfulness, we 
should lose the moral benefit which a habit of con- 
stant watchfulness induces. Depend upon it in the 
high and holy service which awaits the true soldier of 
the Cross, we shall need all those faculties that are 
now being quickened and trained by our contact 
with danger, and our exposure to apparently hostile 
conditions of existence. 

Our Lord's frequent use of the exhortation to 
watchfulness refers, in almost every case, to our atti- 
tude in view of His Second Coming. He has told 
us so much about this, and has given us so many 
warnings against carelessness in view of His return, 
that we shall do well to be found among those, who 
in these dark and tragic days, are constantly looking 
for His appearing. So delighted will He be to find 
His servants watching that He uses remarkable 
words to express that delight: "Blessed are those 
servants, whom the Lord when He cometh shall find 
watching : verily I say unto you, that He shall gird 
Himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and 
will come forth and serve them " (Luke 12: 37). 

It is the picture of a nobleman who has gone 
away to a marriage feast ; the time of whose return is 



THE SOLDIER'S DRILL BOOK NO. 1 81 

uncertain. He has commanded his servants to watch, 
so that return when he may, morning, noon or night, 
he will find them ready to welcome him. One night, 
when all the world is sleeping, the vigilant watchers 
hear the sound of an approaching cavalcade. They 
joyfully exclaim, ''It is he!" Flinging open the 
gates and doors, he enters, to find his faithful serv- 
ants at their post, the table spread for refreshment, 
and a welcome from all. Makarios, says the Master, 
not only "Blessed," but "Supremely Messed are 
those servants, ' ' and he shows his delight at finding 
them so vigilant, that he makes them sit down at 
the feast which they have prepared for him, while 
he waits upon them. 

Watching is never pleasant work. No soldier likes 
it. Men infinitely prefer the excitement and danger 
of the battlefield to long hours of unsleeping vigi- 
lance. But the work of the sentries has sometimes as 
much to do in deciding the history of a campaign as 
a victorious battle. 

No general ever realized this more than Napoleon 
the Great. I have seen a picture which strikingly 
illustrates this. It was the Emperor's custom to 
steal out in the darkness, in disguise, to see whether 
the pickets were all at their post. One night he 
found a sentry fast asleep at a post of danger. There 
he lay on the ground, his rifle in his arms. Napoleon 
took the rifle, without awaking the sleeping soldier, 
and then took his place as sentry until the man 
awoke. 

The picture represents 'the soldier awaking with 
the coming of the dawn. He is on one knee, shading 
his eyes, and looking at the martial figure standing 
close beside him. "My God," he cries in horror, 
"it's the Emperor ! ' ' and he knows that with such a 
Witness to his faithlessness he can look forward to 



82 GUARDING THE OUTPOSTS 

nothing but the penalty of death for being found 
sleeping at his post. 

"Watch ye!" lest when the Lord Jesus comes 
again you be found sleeping. 



" Christian ! seek not yet repose, 
Cast thy dreams of ease away; 
Thou art in the midst of foes : 

Watch and pray. 

" Principalities and powers, 
Mustering their unseen array, 
Wait for thy unguarded hours: 

Watch and pray. 

"Gird thy heavenly armour on, 
Wear it ever night and day; 
Ambushed lies the evil one: 

Watch and pray. 

" Hear the victors who o'ercame ; 
Still they mark each warrior's way; 
And with one sweet voice exclaim, 

Watch and pray. 

"Hear, above all, hear thy Lord, 
Him thou lovest to obey; 
Hide within thy heart His word, 

Watch and pray. 

"Watch, as if on that alone 
Hung the issue of the day; 
Pray that help may be sent down: 

Watch and pray." 






XI 

THE SOLDIER'S DRILL BOOK 

No. 2. "Stand Fast !" 

A T the critical moment in the Battle of Waterloo, 
l\ when everything depended on the steadiness 
-^ ■*» of the soldiery, courier after courier kept 
dashing into the presence of the Duke of Wellington 
announcing that unless the troops at an important 
point were immediately relieved or withdrawn they 
must yield before the impetuous onsets of the French. 
By all the couriers the Iron Duke sent back the same 
spirit-stirring message, "Stand Firm!" Once an 
officer galloped up and replying to the Duke's com- 
mand to ' ' Stand Firm ! ' ' exclaimed : ' ■ But we shall 
all perish!" "Stand Firm!" repeated the iron- 
hearted chieftain. "You'll find us there!" rejoined 
the officer, as he put spurs to his charger and fiercely 
galloped away. The result proved the truth of the 
officer's forecast, for every soldier of that doomed 
brigade fell, fighting bravely at his post. They 
"Stood Firm," to the last man. 

Take the exhortation ' ' Stand Fast ! ' ' first, as being 
opposed to cowardice, to fainting, to a dishonourable 
and inglorious retreat. Having taken your place in 
the fighting-line you must stand fast. The militant 
position must be maintained to the very end. You 
may as well throw away the scabbard of your sword 
for you will never again need it. There is no dis- 



84 GUARDING THE OUTPOSTS 

charge in this war. You may be weak, but you must 
stand fast. You may argue, like the officer in the 
battle of Waterloo, "But I shall perish!" yet you 
must stand fast. You may be weary and tempted to 
faint in the hour of conflict, but you must resist the 
temptation, and stand fast. You may see others fall 
about you, but you must stand fast. Some may sell 
their swords, prove cowards and run for their lives, 
but you must stand fast. The position allotted to 
you may seem exceptionally perilous and critical, 
but you must stand fast. The day of victory may be 
long delayed, but you must stand fast. 

When the Chinese soldiers returned after the con- 
flict between China and Japan, it was found that 
many of them had wounds in their back. There was 
no need to ask them what they had done. Those 
wounds in the back told the sad story of cowardice 
and of dishonourable retreat. You will have noticed 
that in the Christian's armour there is nothing for 
the back. 

Take the ' ' Stand Fast ! " as being opposed to all 
irregularity and disorder; all unwarranted license 
on the part of the soldier. "If any man strive for 
the mastery," says Paul in another place, "yet is he 
not crowned unless he strive lawfully." There are 
fixed rules for warfare and by them the soldier must 
abide. He is sometimes tempted to rebel against 
the rigid and unbending discipline to which he is 
subjected. But without discipline an army becomes 
an unmanageable horde, one part of which is as 
likely as not to turn its destructive energies against 
the other. 

In those dark days through which Russia has re- 
cently passed nothing was more distressing to her 
friends than to read that her soldiers had become so 
lawless, and demoralized, and undisciplined, that 



TEE SOLDIER'S DRILL BOOK NO. 2 85 

they were actually shooting their own officers. Noth- 
ing strikes a civilian's eye more quickly, as he 
watches a regiment of soldiers passing through a 
city, than the presence or absence of discipline. 
"When he sees a lack of rhythm in the movements, 
with here and there a man who is in danger of almost 
falling out of the ranks, he knows that the rigid 
discipline, which is not merely the perfection of 
form, but which is also an essential condition of 
power, is to some extent lacking. 

In his great sermon on ' ' The Military Discipline, ' ' 
Horace Bushnell asks: "Does it then reduce the sol- 
diers and all the subordinate commanders of an army 
to mere ciphers, when they are required to march, 
and wheel, and lift every foot, and set every mus- 
cle, by the word of authority ; when even the music 
is commandment, and to feed and sleep, and not 
sleep are by requirement ? Why, the service rightly 
maintained invigorates every manly quality; for 
they are in a great cause, moving with great emphasis, 
having thus great thoughts ranging in them and, 
it may be, great inspirations. Not many of 
them ever had as great before, or ever will have 
again. ■ ' 

When our soldiers return from their campaign, 
how often is it remarked of one and another, that his 
good-for-nothingness, the slouchiness, is somehow 
taken away, and that his very gait is manlier ; as if 
he were a man squared up by discipline and com- 
mand, and the new-felt possibility of being of some 
consequence to his country. 

So it is in the Christian life. Our very restrictions 
are our enfranchisement. We attain our highest 
liberty by becoming the bond slaves of Jesus Christ. 
"If ye abide in my Word," He said, "then are ye 
truly my disciples, and ye shall know the truth and 



86 GUARDING THE OUTPOSTS 

the truth shall make you free." Accept then His 
ideals; and submit to His Saviourship. Instead of 
discussing "Heaven's easy, artless, unincumbered 
plan" of salvation by faith, unhesitatingly submit to 
it. Do as the Israelites did, when Moses told them 
the conditions on which their emancipation could be 
obtained. It is said : ' ' And the people bowed the head 
and worshipped. And the children of Israel went 
away and did so" (Exod. 12:27-28). Having sub- 
mitted to the Saviourship of Jesus Christ, submit next 
to His Sovereignty. Then instead of the old "I can- 
not do this," you will find that He so possesses and 
empowers the soul that you will exclaim, "I can do 
all things in Christ who strengtheneth me. ' ' This is 
what it means to "stand fast in the faith." 
So the blind preacher-poet sings : 

"Make me a captive, Lord, 

And then I shall be free; 
Force me to render up my sword, 

And I shall conq'ror be. 
I sink in life's alarms 

When by myself I stand 
Imprison me within Thine arms, 

And strong shall be my hand." 

Four times in that wonderful appeal to the 
Christian soldier in the sixth chapter of Ephesians 
Paul urges him to stand : "Be strong in the Lord, and 
in the strength of His might. Put on the whole 
armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against 
the wiles of the devil. For our wrestling is not 
against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, 
against the powers, against the world-rulers of this 
darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in 
the heavenly places. Wherefore take up the whole 
armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in 
the evil day, and having done all, to stand. "Stand" 



THE SOLDIER'S DRILL BOOK NO. 2 87 

. . . "withstand" . . . "stand" . . ." stand there- 
fore" . . . (vers. 10-14). 

Not against flesh and blood have you to wage war, 
but against a superhuman enemy. You are not 
fighting against a fallen world, but against a fallen 
heaven. Of those evil spirits there is a countless mul- 
titude. 

" They throng the air, they darken heaven 
And rule the lower world." 

We have some idea of the armies of Europe, but 
we have a very faint conception of the legions of 
God's adversary and ours. A legion is sometimes 
associated with a single man (Mark 5:9), and a 
legion consisted of six thousand soldiers with its 
complement of cavalry. Under the direction of their 
rulers these fallen spirits ceaselessly strive for 
ascendancy over the hearts and reason of men. 
There are no human souls which are not more or 
less subject to their influence. You never enter 
your place of prayer, or stand before the altar of 
God, but Satan is there, in the person of his emis- 
saries, to resist you. 

Their greatest triumph consists in persuading men 
that they are on no ground of danger or warfare, 
but in a paradise of delights for the gratification of 
the senses and appetites. Most men prefer to believe 
in the reasonings of these evil spirits rather than in 
the Word of God. Consequently they abandon 
themselves to immediate pleasure. They lose the 
battle and go into the darkness, to discover, when it 
is too late, in what relation those stand to heaven 
whose time on earth was a frivolity, a loving of 
the garish day, a holiday instead of a conflict. 

Your only hope is to put on the Divine armour. 
Jesus is the only man who ever prevailed in this war. 



88 GUARDING THE OUTPOSTS 

To meet this enemy in actual combat and to over- 
come him, was one of the grand ends of the Incarna- 
tion, therefore ' ' put on the Lord Jesus Christ. ' ' If 
you put on Christ, you put on armour clothed in 
which the weakest and feeblest cannot fail, and 
without which the mightiest and shrewdest cannot 
succeed. 

There is no finer illustration in history — excepting 
the appearance of Paul before Nero — of what it 
means to " stand fast in the faith," than Luther's 
appearance before the Diet of Worms on April 17, 
1521. Many of Luther's friends tried to dissuade 
him from going but he said: "Were there as 
many devils in Worms as there are tiles on 
the roofs of the houses I would go in God's 
name. ' ' 

The people crowded the windows and housetops as 
the monk went to the Hall of the Diet, some of them 
calling out to him in solemn words not to recant. 
Carlyle suggests that this was really the petition of 
the whole world lying in dark bondage of soul, 
and paralyzed by the Papal power. In an inarticu- 
late voice they all said : ' ' Free us j it rests with thee ; 
desert us not ! ' ' 

Five thousand people had crowded the ante- 
chamber and other approaches to the Hall. Every 
avenue, and every door were completely blocked up 
with the crowds, and it was only when the imperial 
soldiers had forced open a way for him that Luther 
could enter. As he entered the Inner Hall, where 
the crowd was scarcely less dense, an old general and 
valiant knight laid his hand on Luther's shoulder, 
and said to him in true military style: "Monk! 
Monk! thou hast before thee a march, and an affair 
such as myself and many a captain have not seen the 
like in the bloodiest of our battles ; but if thy cause 



THE SOLDIER'S DRILL BOOK NO. 2 89 

is just, and thou art assured of it, advance in God 's 
name : — God will not abandon thee. ' ' 

Luther entered. There sat the world's pomp, 
pageantry and power. It was the most imposing and 
magnificent assembly that has ever gathered at any 
one time. There sat the young Emperor Charles the 
Fifth, whose dominion embraced two worlds, all the 
Princes of Germany, six electors of the Empire, 
eighty dukes, eight margraves, thirty prelates of 
various ranks, seven ambassadors, the deputies of 
five cities, with the Papal nuncios and others. All 
those were on one side. 

On the other, standing up for God's Truth one 
solitary monk, the son of Hans Luther the poor 
miner. This very appearance there was a victory. 
The Pope had condemned him, excommunicated him, 
and given him over to eternal death, but now he has 
to do with an assembly of men, who, like himself, 
placed themselves above the Pope. 

As he advanced in front of the throne on which 
the Emperor was seated, every eye was fixed upon 
him. Here is his portrait: he is of middle size — 
in the prime of life — emaciated by care and study — 
calm and benignant in aspect — with a clear and pene- 
trating voice. The rustle and hum dies away into 
the most solemn stillness. 

Two questions were addressed to Luther by the 
Archbishop's Chancellor: "Dost thou admit that 
these books were written by thee? Wilt thou 
retract these works and their contents, or 
dost thou persist in the things thou hast 
advanced?" 

When, after long discussion, the Diet found that it 
could not by any means remove the Reformer from 
the ground which he had taken, the proceedings were 
wound up with the repetition of the question ; ' ' Will 



90 GUARDING THE OUTPOSTS 

you, or will you not retract?" To which question 
Luther gave the immortal answer : 

" Unless I am convicted of error by the 
Holy Scriptures, I neither can nor 
dare retract anything; for my con- 
science is held captive by God's 
Word. Here I stand. I can do no 
other. God help me Amen." 

The Diet of Worms was over. The great and glori- 
ous day was ended. The victory in which we are 
sharers was won, and the voice that spoke to that 
august assembly speaks to you and to me and says: 
"Watch ye; Stand fast in the faith; Quit you like 
men; Be strong!" 



XII 

THE SOLDIER'S DRILL BOOK 

No. 3. "Quit you like Men!" 

THESE words, "Quit you like men," are a 
ringing challenge to Christian manliness. 
The word which expresses the challenge is 
only found in this place, and might be translated, 
"Play the man!" For our phrase of four words, 
Paul uses but a single word, an8r. The primary 
meaning of which is simply man as distinct from 
woman ; its secondary meaning is man as a person of 
mature years in contrast with a child. For its third 
and supreme meaning, the word broadened and blos- 
somed into the larger conception of man, as a being 
possessed of intelligence, wisdom, moral light and 
force; possessed moreover, of a spiritual nature, in 
contrast with creatures of an inferior order who are 
devoid of these endowments. 

Long before Paul's day the word had been used, 
somewhat as he uses it, to spur and inspire men to 
great, worthy and difficult deeds. In Homer and 
Herodotus, for instance, the word comes up again 
and again, when some great chieftain at a moment 
of danger, and in the presence of some tremendous 
task, turns to his followers and exhorts them to ' ' play 
the man!" 

Paul charged the word, as he often does, with a 
far richer meaning, because his conception of the 

91 



92 GUARDING THE OUTPOSTS 

spiritual range and possibilities of man's nature 
was far grander than theirs. The basis of his appeal 
is, however, the same as theirs. 

The primary use of the word is a protest against 
effeminacy. If in any direction a man is expected 
to have more courage and strength than a woman, let 
him acquit himself like a man. 

The secondary use of the word is a protest against 
childishness. If a grown man is expected to have 
more intelligence, wisdom, force, self-control or forti- 
tude than a child ; if, since becoming a man, he claims 
to have put away childish things, then let him ' ' play 
the man." 

But the word is charged, as we have seen, with a 
greater meaning. Its supreme and consummate 
signification is that men are to act as creatures hav- 
ing reason, conscience, power of choice and the meas- 
ureless possibilities of an immortal life ; and not like 
creatures of mere instinct, impulse and irresponsi- 
bility. Here the protest is against animalism or 
brutishness, which may be defined as existence un- 
regulated by intelligent and conscientious self- 
direction. 

Paul's conception of playing the man, is to acquit 
ourselves like beings who act above effeminacy, 
above childishness and above brutishness ; to be under 
the control of Another, thus finding our true en- 
franchisement, and not to be the sport of whims and 
fancies; of frivolities and foolishness; of accidents 
and impulses ; of emotions and passions. 

A hundred years ago a young man from Peter- 
borough, England, entered Christ College at Cam- 
bridge. His head was clear and his ability was un- 
doubted, but he fell into bad company, and his 
precious time and University privileges were passing 
away in idleness. He had spent his evening in 



TEE SOLDIER'S DRILL BOOK NO. 3 93 

frivolous company, eating, drinking and making 
merry. 

At five the next morning he was awakened by one 
of his better companions, who was standing at his 
bedside. "Paley," he said, "ivliat a fool you are to 
waste your time in this way! I could do nothing if 
I were to try, for I lack the ability. You could do 
anything. I have had no sleep with thinking about 
you. Now I have come to tell you that unless you 
renounce this frivolous, idle, prodigal life, I shall 
renounce your society." 

This plainspoken admonition, coming from an un- 
expected quarter, was not lost. That very day the 
startled sluggard and prodigal came to himself. He 
formed a new plan of life. He put himself by a de- 
liberate act of will under the Saviourship and Sov- 
ereignty of Jesus Christ. He rose every morning at 
five ; he worked till nine at night. He kept his reso- 
lutions. His industry was unconquerable ; his prog- 
ress was unrivalled. When the examinations were 
held, at the top of the list, in the highest place of 
honour known as Senior Wrangler, stood the name 
of William Paley, whose great book on Christian 
Evidences is known to all students of Theology; 
as a work that has rendered the cause of Truth 
service which is simply invaluable. 

1. Manliness is Chivalry 

Away back in the Middle Ages was a beautiful and 
radiant thing named Chivalry — partly real and 
partly ideal. The ideal part is just as precious to 
us as the real. One great purpose lay at the founda- 
tion of Chivalry. It was the cultivation of the 
finest and most stately type of manhood, that ever 
trod up and down the world. 



94 GUARDING THE OUTPOSTS 

The dream of chivalry was embodied by King Ar- 
thur and the knights who sat with him at the Round 
Table. Let King Arthur himself tell us what 
chivalry meant: 

" I was first of all the kings who drew 
The knighthood-errant of this realm and all 
The realms together under me, their Head, 
In that fair Order of my Table Round, 
A glorious company, the flower of men, 
To serve as model for the mighty world, 
And be the fair beginning of a time. 
I made them lay their hands in mine and swear 
To reverence the King, as if he were 
Their conscience, and their conscience as their King, 
To break the heathen and uphold the Christ, 
To ride abroad redressing human wrongs, 
To speak no slander, no, nor listen to it, 
To honour his own word as if his God's, 
To lead sweet lives in purest chastity, 
To love one maiden only, cleave to her, 
And worship her by years of noble deeds, 
Until they won her; for indeed I knew 
Of no more subtle master under heaven 
Than is the maiden passion for a maid, 
Not only to keep down the base in man, 
But teach high thought, and amiable words 
And courtliness, and the desire of fame, 
And love of truth, and all that makes a man." 



Thus the oath of the Arthurian knighthood and 
manhood consisted of a loyalty, to Christ, to King, 
and to conscience. They were to be truthful in an 
age of falsehood ; courteous in an age of coarseness ; 
chaste in an age of unchastity ; temperate in> an age 
of intemperance. 

Long before chivalry was talked about, those very 
truths lived in Paul's soul and were incarnated in 
Paul 's life ; and they live to-day in the life of every 
man who like the Apostle is indwelt by Jesus Christ. 
It matters not whether he wields the pen or the 
plough-handle; the sword or the sledge-hammer; it 



THE SOLDIER'S DRILL BOOK NO. 3 95 

matters not whether he point the rifle in defence of 
Freedom or steer the roadster in pursuit of pleasure ; 
whether he sits at a round table or a square one ; it is 
as true for him as it was for Sir Galahad, Sir Lance- 
lot, Sir Tristam or King Arthur, that unchastity is 
dishonour to manliness; that it is a fatal detraction 
from it ; that it is absolutely incompatible with it. 
A vicious, profane, intemperate, man — no matter 
how bulky his pocketbook — has no more claim to be 
called a manly man — that is a gentleman — than a 
vicious, immodest woman can claim to be a womanly 
woman — that is a lady. 

2. Manliness is Courage 

We must remember that military courage is only 
one type of courage. It is a type the world greatly 
needs just now, and it is deserving of our admira- 
tion, but it is not the highest type. It is not by any 
means peculiar tothe age in which we are living. It 
existed in the days of Greece and Rome, nor have 
we advanced an inch in military courage beyond the 
standards of the Old World. Physical courage leaped 
full-statured into the arena of battle in the morning 
of the world, and it will never be possible to 
go beyond the heroism reached by the soldiers of 
Greece and Rome, or by the savages who laughed 
at death and faced it without quailing for a single 
moment. Their physical courage can never be 
surpassed. 

No man but a fool or a brute, loves war for its own 
sake. It is not for love of war that tens of thousands 
of men have responded to the call of their country. 
They are inspired by a sense of patriotism and duty, 
and when that spirit dies out of a land she is as surely 
doomed as Rome was in the days of her decadence. 



96 GUARDING THE OUTPOSTS 

The soldiers of the National Army are in some spe- 
cial sense, as the President says "the Soldiers of 
Freedom/ ' 

Never before has there been a war where the right 
to move about freely; to do one's lawful business 
without interruption; to protect our loved ones, our 
wives and children from the barbarity of lust and 
murder, has been so definitely presented to the Amer- 
ican people as it is to-day. 

" You must fight for the fire that toasts your feet, for the 

roof that shelters your head, 
For the herd that yields you its milk or meat, for the field 

that gives you bread; 
You must fight for bed, you must fight for board, for the 

woman you love the best. 
And, oh, you must fight with a tenfold will for the baby 

at her breast. 

" When a mad dog comes down your village street, with the 
green foam in his jaws, 

Do you greet him with Bibles and hymn-books, and lov- 
ingly bid him pause ? 

When a rattlesnake rises amidst your path, alert with its 
fiery sting, 

Do you pet him, and pat him, and wish him well, and a 
song of welcome sing? 

" When a big-armed bully among the Powers says the folk 

of a little land 
Must sprawl in the dirt and confess to a crime that never 

besmirched their hand, 
Do you blame that people that rises up a pigmy ready to 

figM, 
A David aroused, with only a sling, defying Goliath's 

might ? 

" When a vain War-Lord with a swollen head, inflamed with 

a brute desire, 
Through a little State that was lapped in peace comes 

tramping with blood and fire 
Despoiling the fields and looting the towns — do you blame 

that blameless State 
For rousing in Godlike righteous wrath and hitting with 

righteous hate? 



THE SOLDIER'S DRILL BOOK NO. 3 97 

" And war is the great Arouser ; it silences whimpering 

tongues ; 
It toughens the muscles, it hardens the fist, and brings 

fresh air to the lungs; 
Tho' it comes with torch and it strikes with steel, and 

shortens life's petty span, 
Man's life it exalts to heroic heights, so a man is twice 

a man." 



The highest type of courage is that to which the 
Son of God is always calling us. He calls men to 
war. Some one has said : " He would have no hope of 
getting the young men of the world if He could not 
promise them war, because young men have in them 
the fighting instincts, and it is their sphere and 
calling to batter down the citadels of the enemy. ' ' 

He came not to send peace but a sword, but lest 
any one should think He meant a sword of steel He 
corrected Peter the first moment he drew his sword 
of steel. "Put up that sword!" said Jesus when 
Peter had cut off a man 's ear. ' ' Put up that sword ; 
I was calling you to a higher courage. ' ' Peter found 
out a few hours later how different moral courage 
was from military courage, for he went down in the 
presence of a taunting servant girl. It is this moral 
courage we need to play the man. 

3. Manliness is Robustness 

If those who think the religion of Jesus Christ -is 
necessarily expressed in sanctimonious looks and 
phrases they are making the greatest mistake imagi- 
nable. Because of the lack of sanity and robustness 
in many a life, the religion of Jesus is regarded as 
something having principally to do with women, and 
especially old women. A famous Baptist preacher 
in Liverpool, once said of a certain individual, whose 
religion was repellant rather than attractive: "It 



98 GUARDING THE OUTPOSTS 

might be true that he had put off the old man, but 
he had certainly put on the old woman.' ' 

Many popular authors — even Charles Dickens is 
not free from this criticism — represent ministers of 
the Gospel as the very opposite of robust manly men. 
They are often represented as sleek, oily, sneaky, 
sanctimonious and hypocritical ; anything and every- 
thing but specimens of a robust, attractive, Christian 
manhood. 

Others again have grown accustomed to think of 
religion — and by religion I of course mean Chris- 
tianity — as something associated with sickness and 
death-beds. To them religion is an experience that 
narrows and restricts; a kill-joy, a skeleton at the 
feast of life ; a kind of incarnate ' ' Don 't ! " That is 
a miserable travesty of religion; a repelling and 
ghastly caricature. The religion I urge upon your 
acceptance does not mean pushing in the stops and 
shutting off all the music of life ; but a drawing out 
of every stop; that all the music of life may swell 
forth in rich and full-voiced harmony. In a word, to 
be Christ's man, and so to be able in the highest 
sense to play the man. 



xm 

t 

THE SOLDIER'S DRILL BOOK 

No. 4. ' ' Be Strong !" 

WHEN the Captain calls to His soldiers, in 
the hottest moments of the fight to "Be 
Strong!" what does He mean? Every 
command of His is conveyed to me in the form of a 
promise, and there must be somewhere within my 
reach such strength as will not only carry me vic- 
toriously through the fight, but as will enable me 
to be more than conqueror. What kind of strength 
is it? 

It is not physical strength. There is no more re- 
markable illustration of the folly of relying on 
human strength than is found in Hebrew history. 
A conflict with Assyria was impending, and the in- 
fatuated Jews sought an alliance with Egypt, not- 
withstanding the previous failures of Egypt to give 
them effective assistance. The Assyrian cavalry was 
very numerous and very efficient. The Jews had no 
cavalry worth speaking of. They were forbidden to 
multiply horses lest they should depend on them 
rather than on God. They turned in their infatua- 
tion to the Egyptian horses and war-chariots, for 
that country was possessed of a chariot-force of great 
strength. 

Now listen to Isaiah: "Woe unto them that go 
down to Egypt for help; and stay on horses; and 
trust in chariots, because they are many; and in 

99 



100 GUARDING THE OUTPOSTS 

horsemen because they are very strong ; but they look 
not unto the Holy One of Israel, and Jehovah they 
do not seek." . . . "Now the Egyptians are men 
and not God; and their horses flesh and not spirit: 
and when the Lord shall stretch out His hand, both 
he that helpeth shall stumble, and he that is helped 
shall fall and they shall all perish together" (Isa. 
31:1-3). 

The eyes of the Judean statesmen were fastened 
upon brute force. Egyptian cavalry was to them the 
very nerve and sinew of war, and Egypt, who pos- 
sessed them, a coveted ally. "On horses will we 
fly ... on the swift will we ride, ' ' was the word of 
these clever diplomats, who were seeking at this time 
to accomplish the alliance at the very court of 
Pharaoh. 

Isaiah says, "Now the Egyptians are men and not 
God; and their horses flesh and not spirit." In 
other words there is no help for you either in the 
men or in the horses. You are simply putting the 
physical against the physical, brute force against 
brute force ; Egyptian cavalry against Assyrian cav- 
alry, and it will all come to nothing. "The arm of 
flesh will fail you." 

"What is the Divine programme? "In returning 
and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and con- 
fidence shall be your strength" (ch. 30: 15). It was 
not alliance they needed but reliance. Not a panicky 
rush to Egypt for help, but a returning to God in 
penitence for their national sins. An abandonment 
of the disgusting and distracting search for human 
aids, and a quiet confidence in God, as the outcome 
of an adjusted relationship to Him. In that direc- 
tion alone is real strength, says Isaiah. 

This disposition to lean on the arm of flesh instead 
of trusting in the interposition of God is not Jew- 



TEE SOLDIER'S DRILL BOOK NO. 4 101 

ish but human ; instead of being peculiar to any one 
age or dispensation, it is an abiding spiritual peril. 
Are there any signs of it in our midst to-day? 

We are justly proud of our splendid navy, but 
were our warships ten times as numerous that would 
not make us strong. We may congratulate ourselves 
that hundreds of thousands of young men from 
every walk of life, with the fire of patriotism burning 
in their breast, have responded to their country's 
call; but were that number multiplied a hundred- 
fold that would not make us strong. 

A nation's greatness does not consist in its size, 
nor in the multitude of its people, nor in the vast- 
ness of its wealth. It is easy to be blinded and in- 
toxicated with an admiration of greatness of this 
kind, like races that hold not God in awe. Unless we 
persistently set our faces against that delusion we are 
as surely doomed as Babylon or Rome. No nation 
that imagined it could exist and flourish in the 
strength of its men, armaments and material re- 
sources has ever lasted in the history of the world, 
or ever can. That is written for our warning in 
letters of fire. 

Think of a nation involved, through no choice of its 
own, in a cataclysm that has no parallel in the history 
of the world; that has already plunged millions of 
homes into the deepest mourning ; that has robbed the 
earth of hundreds of thousands of her choicest sons ; 
assembling in a great city forty thousand strong, on 
the Sabbath day to witness one of the World's Series 
of ball games! 

When the manhood of a country has largely for- 
gotten God: does not worship Him in spirit and in 
truth; is possessed of an insensate love of pleasure; 
and imagines the summum bonum to be the acquisi- 
tion of wealth ; the marks of degeneracy are already 



102 GUARDING THE OUTPOSTS 

upon her. It is a spiritual, a moral degeneracy ; and 
such a degeneracy inevitably spells weakness. 

" Is it degenerate to fall from wealth, 
To live in straiter shores, on scantier fare, 
To put on homespun, and to lodge 
With bare simplicity, the hardy nurse of health? 
Nay, these are accidents which never yet 
Did hurt nobility, but one thing may 
Brand on our brow the mark ' degenerate/ 
To lose the vision of the truly great 
And lapse from effort on the starry way." 

"You have been clever and successful," says Isaiah 
to the Hebrew diplomats, "but you have forgotten 
that God also is wise," that He too has His policy, 
and, as Dr. Adam Smith puts it, "works in history 
with as much cleverness and persistence as you do. ' ' 
After Moscow, Napoleon is reported to have ex- 
claimed, "The Almighty is too strong for me." 
God's snowflakes were stronger than Napoleon's 
battalions. 

What then is it to be strong ? Paul tells us in other 
places. It is to be "strong in the Lord and in the 
strength of His might." This constantly recurring 
formula, "in the Lord," indicates the relation to 
Christ in which alone the true strength can be ex- 
perienced. It is the strength of His might that 
you need; and His strength, by faith, becomes 
yours. 

Professor Drummond once put it like this: "The 
problem of the Christian life is to preserve the right 
attitude. To abide in Christ is to be in position, that 
is all. God creates, man utilizes. All the work of the 
world is merely taking advantage of energies already 
there. God gives the wind, the water and the heat. 
Man puts himself in the way of the wind; he fixes 
his water-wheel in the way of the river; he puts his 
piston in the way of the steam ; and so holding him- 



TEE SOLDIER'S DRILL BOOK NO. 4 103 

self in position before God's Spirit, all the energies 
of Omnipotence course within his soul. ' ' 

Just as the steam engine genders the dynamic force 
which bolts and wheels communicate to the inert mass 
of machinery of the factory, so Christ is alone the 
source of spiritual strength which, through faith, is 
communicated to His people. 

I have seen what are called " petrifying wells," 
into which people put pieces of wood and other 
things. The wood is not turned into stone but the 
well infiltrates into the wood mineral particles, 
which makes the wood as strong as stone. So my 
manhood, with all its impotence, may have filtered 
into it Divine strength which will brace me for all 
needful duty, enable me to stand my ground in the 
day of battle, and having fought to the end, to remain 
a victor on the field. 

Paul says we are "strengthened with might by 
His Spirit in the inner man." The inner man! 
What do those words mean ? Remember you have a 
dual nature. I will suppose that you have often tried 
to change the outward man, your conduct; your 
appearance in the eyes of other people ; to rid your- 
self of some habit that has been growing with your 
growth and strengthening with your strength. But 
you have failed, because you have not gone deep 
enough. The inner man is what Peter calls "the 
hidden man of the heart." It is the soul, the unseen 
self as distinguished from the outward man, which 
the inner man animates and informs. It includes 
the thinking, the feeling, the resolving faculties. 
That inner man needs a life and a strength which is 
not human but Divine. It needs a strength that is 
not ethereal but real. It needs a might that will be 
diffused through our whole being and that will be 
available for our whole life. 



104 GUARDING THE OUTPOSTS 

It is in this inner self which the Spirit of God 
regenerates and in which He dwells. As one has 
said: "The point to mark is that the whole inward 
region which makes np the true man is the field upon 
which this Divine Spirit is to work. It is not a bit 
of your inward life that is to be hallowed. It is not 
any one aspect of it that is to be strengthened ; but 
it is the whole intellect, affections, desires, tastes, 
powers of attention, conscience, imagination, mem- 
ory, will. The whole inner man in all its corners is 
to be filled, and to come under the influence of this 
power, 'until there is no part dark, as when the 
bright shining of a candle giveth thee light. ' Let the 
Divine Spirit come, with the master key in His 
hand, into all the dim chambers of your feeble 
nature. ' ' 

He will come into your understanding, and 
strengthen your mentality, making you equal to 
loftier tasks of reason and intellect than you could 
face in your unaided powers ; He will dwell in your 
affections causing them to love holy things. He will 
reinforce your feeble, vacillating will, enabling it to 
lay hold upon the good, and repel the evil ; He will 
pour a great tide of strength into your whole being, 
spirit, soul and body; which shall cover all your 
weakness, whether it be physical, mental or spiritual. 

Many times I have stood upon the seashore when 
the tide has been out. I have walked into the caves ; 
I have examined the inlets and indentations in the 
rocky shore; I have peered into the little bays and 
basins, hollowed in the rock by the pounding of the 
boulders, but now empty and dry, excepting for the 
remains of some stranded shellfish and withered sea- 
weed. 

I have waited until the tide has rolled majestically 
in ; filling every inlet and indentation ; pouring over 



THE SOLDIER'S DRILL BOOK NO. 4 105 

and overflowing every bay and basin. I have had to 
climb out of the way, for the white-crested waves 
were flooding the caves and penetrating the clefts of 
the rock. The whole shore was completely sub- 
merged by the ever-rising sea of waters. 

That is a picture of what the Spirit of God will 
do in your nature if you will only allow Him. He 
will fill every void. He will flood every part of your 
inner man — your understanding, your emotions and 
your will with tides of Divine energy. He will turn 
your inability into ability, your incapacity into ca- 
pacity, your feebleness into strength, and He will 
do it now, if you will only ask Him, for this is His 
loved work. 

Your safety lies in your conscious helplessness, for 
His strength is made perfect in your weakness. All 
your self-conceit and self-confidence have to be taken 
out of you, for it is only when you are weak in 
yourself that you can become strong in Him. When 
you know yourself to be weak you have taken the 
first step towards strength ; and you continue strong 
by that humble and unceasing dependence, which we 
call faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. 



" Of your boasted wisdom spoiled, 
Docile, helpless as a child; 
Only seeing in His light, 
Only walking in His might." 



XIV 

GORDON'S WHITE HANDKERCHIEF 

k T the funeral service of Charles George Gordon, 
l\ the famous British general, who died under 
•*> ■*■ such tragic circumstances in Khartoum, the 
Bishop of Newcastle made the following beautiful 
and inspiring statement about this Christian soldier. 
There was, each morning, during his journey in the 
Soudan, one half-hour during which there lay out- 
side General Gordon's tent a white handkerchief. 
The whole camp knew the full significance of that 
small token, and it was sacredly respected by every 
man, whatever his colour, creed or business. No foot 
dared to enter the tent so guarded. No message 
however pressing was carried in. Whatever the mes- 
sage was, whether of life or of death, it had to re- 
main until that guardian signal was removed. Every 
one knew that Gordon was alone with God, and that 
as the servant prayed and communed, the Master 
heard and answered. 

That white handkerchief was the secret of the 
saintly, fearless, unselfish life; and Gladstone 
summed up the character of General Gordon in this 
short sentence: "He was a man who lived in close 
communion with God." 

He was absolutely fearless. He feared men so little 
because he feared God so much. A savage monarch 
once had Gordon in his clutches, and told him that 
he had the power to take his life. The monarch 
was amazed beyond words that the General showed 
106 



GORDON'S WHITE HANDKERCHIEF 107 

no kind of fear, and even invited his enemy to take 
his life, if he thought any advantage would accrue to 
him by so doing. He believed that a man is immortal 
till his work is done, and that "though a thousand 
fall at his side, and ten thousand at his right hand, ' ' 
the arrow of death will not be permitted to come 
nigh to him, so long as he hides in God, and makes 
the Most High his Refuge. 

In one of the four great books of Chinese philoso- 
phy there is a striking definition of a man who 
"knowing neither sorrow nor fear, walks alone, all 
confident in his courage." "Such a man," says the 
sage, "although he may love life will love something 
better than life, and although he may hate death will 
hate something more than death. ' ' That description 
exactly fits this heroic Christian soldier. 

How paltry to such a man, walking with God as 
Enoch did, or standing before Him as Elijah did, 
were the prizes of earth, the rewards and honours 
which loom so large in the estimate of many. He 
had a great number of medals, for which he cared 
nothing. There was one medal, however, which was 
given him by the Empress of China, in recognition 
of his splendid services to that country, for which he 
had a great liking. Upon this medal a special in- 
scription was engraved which led the General to 
value it highly. But the medal suddenly disap- 
peared; no one knew when or how. Years after- 
wards it was found out by a curious accident, that 
Gordon had erased the inscription, had sold the 
medal for $50, and then had sent that sum anony- 
mously for the relief of the sufferers from the cotton 
famine in Manchester. 

There is an entry in his Journal which came to 
light after his death. "Never shall I forget what 
I got when I scored out the inscription on the gold 



108 GUARDING THE OUTPOSTS 

medal. How I have been repaid a million-fold. There 
is now not one thing I value in the world. Its hon- 
ours are all perishable and useless." 

"My dear," he says to his sister, "why do you 
keep caring for what the world says? Try, oh, try 
to be no longer a slave to it. You can have little idea 
of the comfort of freedom from it ; it is bliss. Hoist 
your flag and abide by it. In an infinitely short 
space of time all secret things will be divulged. Roll 
your burdens on Him. He will make straight your 
mistakes. He will set you right with those with 
whom you have set yourself wrong. Here am I, a 
lump of clay; Thou art the Potter. Mould me as 
Thou in Thy wisdom wilt; never mind my cries. 
Cut off my life, so be it ; prolong it, so be it. ' ' 

Is some one reading this who is smarting from non- 
recognition? One, perchance, who sees others pro- 
moted, who in their judgment, are far less worthy 
from every point of view? Cease from all dis- 
appointment and fretfulness on this account, and put 
yourself as you read, into the loving, mighty hands 
of the great Potter, and tell Him there is but one 
thing you desire and are concerned about, and that is 
to be made a ' ' vessel unto honour, sanctified and meet 
for the Master's use." 

But some one is asking how can I become so ac- 
quainted with God as to be at rest? How can I be 
rid of this thirst for human praise, and this feeling 
of irritation and annoyance when others are pre- 
ferred before me? 

There is only one way by which men on earth 
come to know one another, that is by having com- 
munication one with another. It need not be by 
talking face to face, you may become intimate with 
one you have never seen. But communication of 
some sort there must be. Something there must be 



GORDON'S WHITE HANDKERCHIEF 109 

passing between two friends which carries to each a 
living knowledge of what the other is, and thinks, 
and feels; otherwise there can be no acquaintance, 
no friendship. And this communication must be con- 
tinual and not occasional ; hearty and not lukewarm ; 
sincere and not unreal; open and not characterized 
by concealment. 

This is the only way we can attain to the know- 
ledge of God, and we can attain to it by faith. God 
was as real to Gordon within the curtains of that 
tent, guarded by the white handkerchief, as if he saw 
Him face to face. The common name for this con- 
verse, intercourse, communication, when it is between 
man and God is prayer. 

Prayer is the only way by which man can know 
God. When our spirit addresses itself to God, tells 
out its yearnings and longings to God, He who is a 
Spirit listens, and not only listens but answers ; and 
to do this is to pray. "God's ear," said one of the 
Puritans, "is ever close to my lips; I have only to 
whisper and He will hear. ' ' 

Listen to these golden words by another great 
teacher, taken from ' ' My Life in Christ, or Moments 
of Spiritual Serenity and Contemplation," by 
Father John. ' ' If God is indeed and in truth all that 
we have said, then how easy it is for Him to give us 
all things we need when we take His ordained way of 
faith and prayer to receive them! It is utterly un- 
pardonable, it is absolutely suicidal in us if we still 
doubt, and halt, and come away from God with our 
hearts empty. Our Lord said it as plainly as even 
He could say it. Every one that asketh receiveth, 
and he that seeketh findeth. Believe that you have 
received it and you shall have it. Not to believe, 
then, is blasphemy against God. It is making Jesus 
Christ a lying witness. Only feel truly and sin- 



110 GUARDING THE OUTPOSTS 

cerely your need of that for which you pray, and 
believe that it comes from God, and you will obtain 
anything and everything. For with God all things 
are possible. Whether you are sitting alone, or lying 
down, or walking abroad, or thinking, or writing, or 
working; whether you are well or ill, at home or 
out, on land or on sea, be continually assured that 
God hears the finest breathings and beating of your 
heart ; and that He listens to hear and help you. Has 
He not said to you that He waits to be gracious to 
you? Do you deny that? Forget, deny, despair of 
anything and everything but that. Remember that 
for Omnipotence nothing is difficult, nor for Love a 
trouble or a task. All things, therefore, whatsoever 
you shall ask in prayer, believing, you shall surely 
receive. He who doubts is severely punished for his 
doubt, for his heart is left of God hard, and cold, 
and dead in sin. On the other hand, all blessings ; all 
life, and peace, and power, and joy come directly and 
immediately from God, and from God in answer to 
believing prayer.' ' 

Think, when you are tempted to live independently 
of God, of Gordon's white handkerchief. Without 
prayer you will be as weak as water in the presence 
of temptation; but by prayer you will become as 
bold as a lion, and "the young lion and the dragon 
you shall trample under your feet. ' ' Every moment 
of communion with God will be a moment of deeper 
rest of soul and of increased vigour. 

In the old fable when Hercules fought with the 
giant he could not kill him. He flung him down with 
all his might, and he thought he had dashed him to 
pieces, but every time the giant got up he was 
stronger than before. "Surely," thought Hercules, 
"if I have destroyed the hydra and the lion I can 
kill this giant." But up sprang the giant every 



GORDON'S WHITE HANDKERCHIEF 111 

time he was thrown, because, said the old fable, the 
earth was his mother, and every time he fell he 
touched his mother, and got new life from her. 

So every time you cry to God, and touch the heart 
of your Omnipotent and loving Father, you will get 
new strength. In vain the devil tries to trip you and 
throw you. In vain he flings you down, and says in 
his rage : " I will crush him this time ! ' ' There is a 
secret suggestion by Gordon's white handkerchief 
which will completely baffle the enemy, and make you 
in all things more than conqueror. 

" I need not leave the jostling world, 
Or wait till daily tasks are o'er, 
To fold my hands in secret prayer 
Within the close- shut closet door. 

" There is a viewless, cloistered room 
As high as heaven, as fair as day, 
Where, though no feet may join the throng, 
My soul can enter in and pray. 

"No human step approaching, breaks 
The blissful silence of the place; 
No shadow steals across the light 
That falls from my Redeemer's face. 

" One, hearkening, cannot even know 

When I have crossed the threshold o'er; 
For He alone who hears my prayer, 
Has heard the shutting of the door." 



XV 

THE COMRADESHIP OF GREATHEART 

I MET recently in my reading, a suggestion about 
one of the characters in Bunyan 's " Pilgrim 's 
Progress' ' which greatly interested me. Let me 
quote from that brilliant writer Harrington C. Lees 
of London. He says: "The point where Bunyan 
seems to me to have grown most in the second part 
is that he did not let his pilgrims go alone in a 
greater sense. In the first part, Christian, and 
Faithful, and Hopeful, though they walked step by 
step, still, in regard to their pilgrimage they went 
alone. They had a roll, which did guide them to 
a certain extent, but it did not prevent them from 
getting into Giant Despair's castle, or into the 
Slough of Despond. 

"But in the second part you have Greatheart. 
If there is a way to be shown, Mr. Greatheart shows 
it; if there is a giant to be conquered, Mr. Great- 
heart conquers him ; if there is guidance to be given, 
Mr. Greatheart gives it, Mr. Greatheart is the Com- 
forter, the Holy Spirit." 

Quite naturally I went to my "Pilgrim's Prog- 
ress" and began looking at the second part with 
this thought in my mind ; and I found to my delight 
that Mr. Harrington Lees had put a key in my 
hand which I had never before possessed. 

Here is Bunyan describing a portion of the jour- 
ney of Christiana and her boys: "So they went 
on a little further, and they thought that they felt 

112 



THE COMRADESHIP OF GREATHEART 113 

the ground begin to shake under them, as if some 
hollow place was there; they heard also a kind of 
hissing, as of Serpents, but nothing as yet ap- 
peared. . . . Thus they went on till they came to 
about the middle of the Valley, and then Christiana 
said, 'Methinks I see something yonder upon the 
road before us, a thing of such a shape as I have not 
seen.' . . . And now it was but a little way off. 
Then she said, ' It is nigh ! ' 

" 'Let them that are most afraid keep close to me,' 
said Mr. Greatheart. So the Fiend came on, ai*d the 
Conductor met it; but when it was just come to 
him, it vanished from all their sights. They went 
therefore on, as being a little refreshed; but they 
had not gone far, before Mercy, looking behind her, 
saw, as she thought, something most like a Lion, 
and it came a great padding pace after ; and it had 
a hollow voice of roaring, and at every roar that it 
gave, it made all the Valley echo, and their hearts to 
ache, save the heart of him that was their Guide. 
So it came up, and Mr. Greatheart went behind, and 
put the pilgrims all before him. The Lion also came 
on apace, and Mr. Greatheart addressed himself to 
give battle. But when the Lion saw that it was 
determined that resistance should be made to him, 
he also drew back and came no further." 

In the conflict with the Giant, a little farther on, 
it is Mr. Greatheart who does the fighting; and 
when the victory was won we read: ''They, among 
them, erected a pillar, and fastened the Giant's 
head thereon, and wrote underneath in letters that 
passengers might read : 



' He that did wear this head, was one 
That pilgrims did misuse; 
He stopt their way, he spared none, 
But did them all abuse; 



114 GUARDING THE OUTPOSTS 

" ' Until that I Greatheart arose 
The pilgrims' Guide to be; 
Until that I did him oppose, 
That was their Enemy.' " 

The perpetual presence, comradeship and cham- 
pionship of the Holy Spirit is for all ages. ".He 
shall abide with you for ever/' Jesus said. This is 
the great secret of continuous victory, as Bunyan 
so clearly teaches. The Fiend, the Lion and the 
Giant, were all grappled with and conquered by 
Mr. Greatheart. Indeed the presence of Greatheart 
was enough to frighten both the Fiend and the Lion, 
before they came to close quarters with the pil- 
grims. Let him that readeth understand. 

One of my favourite Old Testament texts is Isaiah 
59: 19, "When the enemy shall come in like a flood, 
the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard 
against him." Never shall I forget an experience 
I had in Dayton, Ohio, when that city was partially 
destroyed two years ago by a flood of waters. How 
suddenly the catastrophe happened ! Almost before 
we could remove our possessions to the upper part 
of the building in which we were staying, the lower 
part of the house was full of water, and the sound 
of breaking glass, and crashing window-frames told 
its story of the strength and volume of^the waters. 
That flood swept before it the stables of the cattle 
and the cottages of the poor. It invaded every busi- 
ness store in the city. It spared not the mansions 
of the rich. What a picture of horror and desola- 
tion that fair city presented when I walked through 
it after the waters had subsided! Scores of dead 
horses lay in the roadway; costly automobiles stood 
abandoned in the midst of the main streets; for 
swift though they were, the flood was swifter. What 
had been a beautiful garden city a few days previ- 



THE COMRADESHIP OF GREATHEART 115 

ously was now a desert, with debris, wreckage and 
ruin everywhere. 

There are times in every life when the experience 
of Christian in the first part of Bunyan's wonderful 
Allegory is ours: "Then Apollyon straddled quite 
over the whole breadth of the way, and said, . . . 
prepare thyself to die; for I swear by my infernal 
Den, that thou shalt go no farther ; here will I spill 
thy soul." Some who read these words are being 
thus challenged to-day. 

Christian, unlike Christiana, had no Greatheart 
to fight for him. "The combat," we read, "lasted 
for above half a day, even till Christian was almost 
quite spent; for you must know that Christian, by 
reason of his wounds, must needs grow weaker and 
weaker. In this combat no man can imagine, unless 
he had seen and heard as I did," says Bunyan, 
"what yelling and hideous roaring Apollyon made 
all the time of the fight; he spake like a Dragon; 
and on the other side, what sighs and groans burst 
from Christian's heart. I never saw him all the 
while give so much as one pleasant look, till he per- 
ceived he had wounded Apollyon with his two-edged 
Sword; then indeed he did smile, and look upward; 
but 'twas the dreadfullest sight that I ever saw. 

"So when the Battle was over, Christian said, 
I will here give thanks to Him that hath delivered 
me out of the mouth of the Lion, to Him that did 
help me against Apollyon. And he did so, saying : 

" * Great Beelzebub, the Captain of this Fiend, 
Designed my ruin; therefore to this end 
He sent him harness'd out: and he with rage 
That hellish was, did fiercely me engage: 
But blessed Michael helped me, and I 
By dint of sword did quickly make him fly. 
Therefore to Him let me give lasting praise 
And thank and bless His holy name always.' " 



116 GUARDING THE OUTPOSTS 

The help of Michael may be good, in these hours 
of awful conflict, but the Championship of Great- 
heart is infinitely better; and by contrasting these 
two experiences — that of Christian and that of 
Christiana — it is easy to see what an advance there 
is in Bunyan 's teaching. 

We have all read how King Canute had his regal 
chair carried down to the sea, when the tide was 
flowing in, to please his flattering courtiers. He 
commanded the waters to retreat, but they heeded 
not; the only retreating that was done was done by 
Canute and his quickly disillusioned courtiers. 

But we have at our call One who will triumphantly 
lift up a standard against the oncoming forces of 
the enemy. If we are only in confederacy with the 
Holy Spirit, He will put Jesus, the Victor of Cal- 
vary, between us and the adversary ; and baffled and 
beaten by the One who bruised His head on the 
Cross, the foe will vanish, as he did when engaged 
by Greatheart in the conflict we have referred to. 
That is a standard Satan cannot endure, even though 
in his haste to destroy us he comes on us like the 
rushing waters of a flood. 

But how can I be assured of the abiding Presence, 
Comradeship and Championship of this Great- 
heart? 

There are five propositions which I have often 
employed in seeking to lead people into the victori- 
ous life, with which I will conclude this chapter. 

Close your eyes for a moment before you read 
them, and ask the Holy Spirit to interpret their 
meaning, and to enable you to take these attitudes 
step by step. 



THE COMRADESHIP OF GREATHEAHT 117 

1. What God claims I gladly yield. 

He claims all. At one of the Conferences between 
the Northern and Southern States, at the close of 
the War of the Sixties, the representatives of the 
South stated what cession of territory they were pre- 
pared to make, provided that the independence of 
the States not ceded to the Federal Government was 
assured. More and more attractive offers were made ; 
the portions to be ceded were increased, and those 
to be retained in a state of independence were pro- 
portionately diminished. All these proposals were 
met by a stedfast refusal. At last President Lincoln 
placed his hand on the map so as to cover the whole 
of the Southern States, and in emphatic words de- 
livered his ultimatum: "Gentlemen, this Govern- 
ment must have the whole." 

It is exactly so in this matter of surrender to God. 
The Ransom He freely gave, in the Person of His 
Only Begotten Son, was for the redemption of our 
being in its totality from the thralldom of Satan. 
Our spirit, our soul and our body now belong to 
Him. They are bought with a price; and He lays 
His hand on the whole of our nature, and claims 
it in its entirety for Himself. 

2. What I yield God accepts. 

He has been waiting for this moment of absolute 
surrender for years. I can never sing 

"My all is on the altar 
I'm waiting for the fire: 
Waiting, waiting, waiting, 
I'm waiting for the fire." 

I cannot sing it because it is not Scriptural. In 
every case, so far as I know, when the sacrifice was 
laid upon the altar the fire immediately fell upon 
it and consumed it. It is we who by our compro- 



118 GUARDING THE OUTPOSTS 

mises and reservations keep Him waiting. He never 
keeps us waiting, for when the yielding is complete,, 
the acceptance is assured. In other words if you 
will bring the fuel, He will send the fire, which is 
His token of acceptance. 

3. What God accepts He cleanses. 

The Holy Spirit is the name of this heavenly Com- 
panion, Comrade and Champion. He does not ask 
us to make our heart worthy of His entrance; that 
would be salvation by works, and is impossible. He 
comes Himself, to cleanse us from all sin, by apply* 
ing to our sin-stained nature all the virtues and 
values of the Atoning Blood. "What the meaning 
of the word ' ' cleanseth ' ' was to Frances Eidley 
Havergal she has described: "One of the intensest 
moments of my life was when I saw the force of 
that word 'cleanseth.' The utterly unexpected and 
altogether unimagined sense of its fulfilment to me, 
on simply believing it in its fulness, was just inde- 
scribable. I expected nothing like it short of 
heaven. " ... 

Will you not look up now, and say in simple, 
childlike faith, and in deepest reverence: "The 
blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth me, even 
me, from all sin." Then "according to your faith 
it will be unto you." 

4. What God cleanses He fills. 

Of course He does. The whole of the processes 
of Redemption are ordained with a view to our being 
indwelt by the Spirit of God, and our consequent 
recovery to the position forfeited by the Fall. Dr. 
A. J. Gordon used to reverse the familiar saying: 
"Man's extremity is God's opportunity"; and make 
it to read: "God's extremity is man's opportunity." 



TEE COMRADESHIP OF GREATHEART 119 

Yes, God is in extremity for Spirit-filled men and 
women, and His extremity is your opportunity. 
Was His extremity ever greater than it is to-day? 
I think not. 

5. What God fills He uses. 

God is a severe economist, and He gives the Spirit 
in His fulness, not for our selfish enjoyment, not 
for the exhilaration of our being, not that we may 
obtain a reputation for uncommon sanctity and 
power, but always for service or for suffering. Some- 
times you may win a harvest of precious souls as 
Peter did, and sometimes you may get a shower of 
cruel stones as Stephen did. All that you are re- 
sponsible for is to be in such unbroken fellowship 
with the Holy Spirit that He can constantly use you, 
and He holds you responsible, not for success, but 
for fidelity. 

" Take me now, Lord Jesus, take me. 
Fill my soul with power Divine; 
Thy devoted servant make me, 
Keep me, Saviour, ever Thine." 



XVI 
SAINTS IN NERO'S HOUSEHOLD 

WHAT an extraordinary salutation this is! 
"All the saints salute you, chiefly they 
that are of Caesar's household." It is 
found at the end of St. Paul's letter to the Philip- 
pians, a letter from Rome, a letter from a prison. 

"Caesar's household"! Of all the unlikely places 
in the world to find saints that was the most un- 
likely. It is wonderful to see a snow-white lily 
spreading its radiant beauty, and scattering its de- 
licious perfume above a noisome bed of mud ! It is 
wonderful to find a spring of sweet water in the 
bitter waste? But it is far more wonderful to find 
saints in the household of Caesar, and this Caesar, 
be it remembered, was the infamous Emperor Nero. 
The historian says: "The epoch which witnessed 
the early growth of Christianity was an epoch of 
which the horror and degradation have been rarely 
equalled, and perhaps never exceeded, in the annals 
of mankind. Abundant proofs of the abnormal 
wickedness which accompanied the decadence of an- 
cient civilization are sown broadcast over the pages 
of its poets, satirists and historians. They are 
stamped upon its coinage, cut on its gems, and 
painted on its chamber- walls. ' ' 

" On that hard Pagan world disgust 
And secret loathing fell ; 
Deep weariness and sated lust 
Made human life a hell." 

120 



SAINTS IN NERO'S HOUSEHOLD 121 

Rome had learnt from Greece the lesson of her 
voluptuous corruption only too well. The old war- 
like spirit of the Romans was dead. The spirit 
that once found delight in conquest on the plains of 
Gaul, and in the forests of Germany, was now sati- 
ated by gazing on criminals fighting for dear life 
with bears and tigers, or upon bands of gladiators 
who hacked each other to pieces on the sand, crim- 
soned with human blood. 

Two phrases summed up the character of Roman 
civilization in the days when Paul witnessed for his 
Master, a prisoner of Nero, waiting his trial — 
heartless cruelty and indescribable corruption. 

At the lowest extreme of the social scale were mil- 
lions of slaves, without family, without religion and 
without possessions. They had no recognized rights, 
and they passed from a childhood of degradation 
to a manhood of hardship, and an old age of un- 
pitied neglect. It is reckoned that in the Roman 
Empire there were no fewer than sixty millions of 
these miserable slaves, who could be put to death for 
any offence and at any moment. 

Only a little above the slaves were the lower 
classes, forming the vast majority of the free-born 
inhabitants of the Empire. They were largely beg- 
gars and idlers. They despised a life of honest 
industry, asking only for bread and the games of 
the Circus. Their life was largely made up of 
squalor, misery and vice. They supported any 
government, however despotic, if their needs were 
only supplied. 

The contrast, always to be found in a period of 
national decadence, of selfish luxury existing side by 
side with abject poverty, was startlingly exhibited 
in Rome. A whole population trembled lest they 
should be starved by the delay of an Alexandrian 



122 GUARDING THE OUTPOSTS 

corn-ship, while the upper classes squandered a for- 
tune on a single banquet, feasting on the brains of 
peacocks and the tongues of nightingales. Vitellius 
set on the table, at one banquet, two thousand fish 
and seven thousand birds, and in eight months, this 
Roman spent in feasts a sum that would now amount 
to many millions of dollars. 

At the head of this whole system, now so putrid 
that it was tottering to its fall, was an emperor 
who, in the terrible language of Gibbon the his- 
torian, was at once "a priest, an atheist and a god." 
Of all the damning iniquities against which Paul 
had often to remind his heathen converts, and against 
which the wrath of God ever burns, there was 
scarcely one of which Nero was not guilty. He was 
"a wholesale robber, a pitiless despot, an intriguer, 
a poisoner, a murderer, a matricide, a liar, a coward, 
a drunkard, a glutton, incestuous; so unutterably 
depraved that even the Pagans spoke of him as 'a 
mixture of blood and mud.' 

"He had usurped a throne; he had poisoned the 
noble boy who was its legitimate heir ; he had mar- 
ried that boy's sister, only to break her heart by 
his brutality, and then order her assassination; he 
planned the murder of his own mother; he treach- 
erously sacrificed the one great general whose vic- 
tories gave any lustre to his reign; he had ordered 
the death of the brave soldier, and the brilliant 
philosopher who had striven in vain to guide his 
wayward heart; he had killed by a brutal kick the 
beautiful woman whom he had torn from her own 
husband to be his second wife; he had reduced his 
capital to ashes, and buffooned and fiddled and sung 
with his cracked voice in public theatres, regardless 
of the misery and starvation of thousands of his 
ruined subjects; he had charged the incendiarism 



SAINTS IN NERO'S HOUSEHOLD 123 

upon the innocent Christians and had tortured them 
to death by hundreds in hideous martyrdom ; he had 
done his best to render infamous his rank, his coun- 
try, his ancestors, the name of Roman — nay, the 
very name of man. ' ' 

This monster of corruption and cruelty was not 
thirty years of age when he was stained through and 
through with every possible crime, and steeped to 
the lips in every nameless degradation. His name 
is the synonym of everything that is impure, cruel 
and despicable. Probably no man has ever lived who 
has crowded into fourteen years of life so black a 
catalogue of iniquities as Nero. 

At the very time when he was filling the cup of 
his iniquities to the full, there lay in one of his 
prisons a prisoner named Paul, the greatest saint, 
the greatest theologian, and the greatest missionary 
the world has ever seen. What a contrast! This 
letter of Paul's to the Philippians, written in that 
prison, with torture and death in view, is like a song 
in the night. As one has said: "It is a kind of 
prolonged echo of that midnight prayer and praise 
which marked Paul's first experience in the city of 
Philippi. The man who sang and prayed in that 
inner prison at Philippi is the man who in the 
Epistle sings, /Rejoice in the Lord, alway ! and again 
I say Rejoice!' " 

I am writing about these saints in Nero's house- 
hold because I know some who read these words will 
have begun to think that it is exceedingly hard, if 
not absolutely impossible, to be loyal to Jesus Christ 
in a barracks, surrounded by scores of comrades, 
many of whom, possibly, have no sympathy what- 
ever with a profession of Christianity, and who 
regard the followers of Jesus as weak-minded molly- 
coddles, and sissies. 



i24 GUARDING TEE OUTPOSTS 

If you are tempted because of this to lower your 
colours, and to speak of your relationship to Jesus 
Christ and His people in whispered tones, or with 
bated breath, remember, I entreat you, the saints 
in Nero's household, and let their heroism put you 
to shame. 

The heads of departments in the royal household 
copied the vices of their sovereign and were almost 
as vile as he. Nero's court must have been a hell 
upon earth, and it should be remembered that the 
saints who shone for their Master in that hotbed of 
vice were not those who had been trained up from 
infancy in the nurture of the Lord. They were, for 
the most part, men and women who had grown up 
amidst the corruptions of paganism, and had been 
snatched as brands from the burning in adult life. 
Now in the midst of a contagion which I have only 
partially and imperfectly described, they were kept 
in loyalty to Christ by the power of God. If they 
could be kept under those conditions, cannot you ? 

There has been discovered in the catacombs of 
Rome an enamel which professes to represent Christ 
on the Cross. It has the figure of a man upon a 
Cross, but the head is the head of an ass. At the 
foot of the Cross, kneeling in adoration, is a Chris- 
tian, and underneath a Latin inscription which 
means : ' ' The Christian worshipping his God. ' ' That 
shows what these Romans thought of Christianity. 

As the religion of Jesus spread, and as His fol- 
lowers multiplied, this scorn and contempt deepened 
into hate. Nero was deified, and, at certain religious 
festivals, incense was offered to him or to his image 
as to a god. The Christians of course refused to 
do anything of the sort. To them it was the veriest 
blasphemy, and a deadly denial of their Lord. Their 
refusal was at once construed into disloyalty to 



SAINTS IN NERO'S HOUSEHOLD 125 

Nero and to Rome. The Christians were then de- 
nounced as traitors and enemies of Rome. Spies 
arose in every street, almost in every house, to betray 
all who were suspected of Christianity. They were 
arrested, dragged before a tribunal, and commanded 
to prove their loyalty by offering incense to Nero. 
When they refused, they were immediately con- 
demned, many of them to unheard-of tortures. They 
were dragged to the great amphitheatre, and in sight 
of twenty thousand spectators, famished dogs tore to 
pieces some of the best and purest of men and 
women, hideously disguised in the skins of bears 
and wolves. 

In the tenth year of Nero's reign, a.d. 64, Rome, 
the most beautiful city in the world, was well-nigh 
destroyed by a fire that raged for six days and 
seven nights. Of its fourteen districts four alone 
escaped, some were completely laid in ashes. The 
evidence against Nero, as the instigator of this catas- 
trophe, is far too unanimous to be set aside. 

Feeling that he had gone too far, and knowing 
that when the people in the streets cursed those who 
had set fire to the city they meant to curse him, 
he endeavoured to fix the crime of destroying the 
capital upon the Christians, the most innocent and 
faithful of his subjects, the only men and women in 
his Empire who ever prayed for him. 

Popular fury then rose to a white heat, and the 
cry was heard on every side: "The Christians to 
the lions ! ' ' But something infinitely more diabolical 
than death by lions in the Coliseum was suggested. 
A huge multitude of Christians were convicted of 
being the disciples of Jesus Christ, on their own 
evidence ; and in the gardens of Nero the ghastliest 
scene that was ever witnessed took place. Along the 
paths of those gardens, on the autumn night, were 



126 GUARDING THE OUTPOSTS 

human torches. The clothing of the Christians was 
actually saturated with pitch and then set on fire, 
while Nero and his courtiers, dressed as charioteers, 
amused the cruel mob with chariot races, and drove 
in and out among them. Could devilish ingenuity 
invent anything more ghastly than that ? 

Now let us recall Paul's words: "All the saints 
salute you, chiefly they that are of Caesar's house- 
hold." Notice the word "chiefly." The chief salu- 
tation came from the most unlikely place. You have 
helpful surroundings, these Christians had none. 
Bad as New York, Chicago and London may be, 
they are heaven compared to Rome in the days of 
which we are thinking. Here there is some strong 
public opinion ranged against vice and immorality, 
in Rome there was none. Yet, like the white lily 
that springs from the muddy ooze of the river, there 
were those who walked with unsullied garments amid 
all the corruptions of a community steeped in the 
foulest vices. And they salute you, who complain 
that it is hard to live the Christian life in the camp, 
on board the ship, or at the front, where duty finds 
you. What would the saints in Nero's household 
think of the difficulties of which you are tempted 
to make so much? 

There were four hundred and fifty heathen tem- 
ples in Rome, but there was not one Christian place 
of worship. The Christians met in small groups in 
each other's houses. They came to the meeting in 
the darkness and by back streets lest they should 
arouse suspicion and be discovered. The latest to 
enter the little gathering would instinctively look 
around to see who was present and who was absent, 
for at every meeting some were missing. 

Think of those gaps, week after week, in that little 
circle of saints ! Where is Rufus, that radiant-faced 



SAINTS IN NERO'S HOUSEHOLD 127 

youth, who told us last week so exultingly of his 
newly-found joy? Where is that gentle maiden, 
Tryphena, whose testimony to the Saviour's power 
to keep her amid the fiercest temptations, brought 
tears to the eyes of all who listened ? Where is that 
big soldier, Amphas, who told that as he listened to 
the prayers of that wonderful prisoner to whom he 
was chained, Paulus by name, he realized that he 
was a sinner, and was then led to the sinner's 
Saviour? Where is that old man, Hermas, whose 
tremulous voice was always heard in praise 
and prayer and testimony? Where indeed were 
they? 

Some were flung to the lions, while those thou- 
sands in the Coliseum looked on, and gloated over 
their sufferings. "Others were tortured not accept- 
ing deliverance, that they might obtain a better 
resurrection. And others had trial of cruel mock- 
ings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and 
imprisonment." And those noble souls, faithful in 
the teeth of the bitterest persecution, salute you, and 
challenge you to a like devotion to the Saviour in 
the barracks, in the camp, and on the field of battle. 
Again I repeat, if they could follow Christ in their 
day, you can in yours. 

Do you covet an opportunity to show your bravery 
and courage ? Here it is. On one of the early Chris- 
tian monuments in Rome there is an epitaph of a 
young military officer, of whom it is written, he 
"lived long enough when he had shed his blood for 
Christ." 

Persecution is Satan's own testimony that you are 
a genuine Christian. It is the world's acknowledg- 
ment that you are what you profess to be. And 
the fact that you are persecuted for righteousness ' 
sake only proves that you are following in the foot- 



128 GUARDING THE OUTPOSTS 

steps of the saints and heroes who have gone before, 
and that you are worthy of your Christian lineage. 
"The saints of Nero's household salute you!" 



" For all the saints who from their labours rest, 
Who Thee by faith before the world confessed. 
Thy name, O Jesu, be for ever blest. 

Alleluia ! 

"Thou wast their rock, their fortress, and their might; 
Thou, Lord, their Captain in the well-fought fight; 
Thou in the darkness drear their one true light. 

Alleluia ! 

" may Thy soldiers, faithful, true, and bold, 
Fight as the saints who nobly fought of old, 
And win, with them, the victor's crown of gold. 

Alleluia ! 

" blest communion ! fellowship divine ! 
We feebly struggle, they in glory shine; 
Yet all are one in Thee, for all are Thine. 

Alleluia! 

"The golden evening brightens in the west, 
Soon, soon to faithful warriors cometh rest, 
Sweet is the calm of Paradise the blest. 

Alleluia ! 

" But lo ! there breaks a yet more glorious day ! 
The saints triumphant rise in bright array; 
The King of glory passes on His way. 

Alleluia ! 

" From earth's wide bounds, from ocean's farthest coast, 
Through gates of pearl streams in the countless host, 
Singing to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost — 

Alleluia!" 



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